Could you explain this?
Well, I listen to Rolling in the Deep these days. The singer says "baby I have no story to be told". However, today I listened to Justin Bieber's song "Somebody love", he says "I need somebody to love".
The question is, why do both singers use different sentence pattern? Is it true if I say "I need somebody to be loved" like used in the other one? Thanks
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回答 · 3
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That's a good answer.
It would not be the same meaning to say "I need somebody to be loved" because he is saying that he actually wants to be the person who is doing the loving. The song's meaning is the same as "I want to love somebody".
In the case of the story song, the meaning is the same as "I do not have a story that anybody needs to tell." or "My story does not need to be told by anyone."
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thanks for the answers, really helpful
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a story to be told - this means that someone else is telling the story, not her.
a story to tell - this means she is telling the story.
I need somebody to love - this means he wants to love someone.
I need somebody to be loved - (rarely written or spoken like this) this would mean that you want someone, you don't say who, to love someone else.
In these examples the to be v3 (told, loved) we are using passive structure. In passive we always use the 3rd verb (example: eat, ate, EATEN) and we use passive in this case to show that someone else is doing the action.
HtH - Rob.
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