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Is this sentence correct? "The results weren't informed us."

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  • While I agree with the answers here, note that this sentence would be understandable if you dropped us from it: The results weren't informed. However, that would make informed an adjective and it would no longer be a passive construction. (It would be similar to It was not an informed decision.)
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 8:35
  • English Language Learners again. The question is more suited for the English Language Learners SE site.
    – user22542
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 11:25
  • @Yasaman Semnani You could say, "the results weren't made known to us" or "the results weren't reported to us."
    – Elian
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 13:44

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No. Some other ways to say what you mean are "Nobody informed us of the results" and "We weren't informed of the results". The noun phrase "the results" is not an object of "informed". Not even indirect object. So the sentence in the OP is not grammatical.

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  • The original sentence was " you did not inform us about the results" .would tell me the direct and indirect object?
    – Yasaman Semnani
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 10:06
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"The results weren't informed us."

You can indeed use 'inform' in the Passive voice and, according to a Cobuild Grammar reference it is more often used in the Passive in a past context. But here you are using what might be called Passive with Ditransitive. Swapping 'inform' with a number of others choices ("The results were given us") would be very informal.

"We weren't informed of the results." is a more common wording in the Passive.

(sorry https://english.stackexchange.com/users/318905/yasaman-semnani I don't yet have the 'reputation' points to address your question.)

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  • What about "The results weren't informed to us."?
    – Vinko Vrsalovic
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 9:55
  • @vinko-vrsalovic: Because we don't "inform to" There just isn't a preposition with 'inform' (unless you use the passive 'be informed by [someone]')
    – Insider_English
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 10:13
  • If you want to use this passive construction but you'd be happy with another verb, you could say "The results weren't told to us". Several verbs can be used like this, e.g. "sent", "posted", "e-mailed", "forwarded".
    – Rosie F
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 11:30

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