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This is something I have heard from a non-native vlogger.

I was reached out to by a company...

Don't know why, but it sounded odd, and I could not find any usage of "to reach out to someone" in Passive.

Is it, perhaps, better to say: I was reached out by a company?

So, please, which is correct? Thanks.

Rista
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    If improvement of the sentence is your goal, why use the passive voice here at all? If the use of the PV is necessary for some reason, then the "to" is necessary. "Recruited by" or "contacted by" would be less kludgy if you want to use PV. – dclxvispqr Sep 11 '22 at 21:29
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    I wouldn’t use it even in the active unless I was trying to do something like pick fruit from a high branch. Try to express your meaning without overreaching yourself. – David Sep 11 '22 at 22:41
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    "reach out" is not good english. – Maths Barry Sep 12 '22 at 07:03

1 Answers1

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You have what CoGEL (section 16.9) calls a "phrasal-prepositional verb". Some of these verbs may be turned into what CoGEL (section 16.14) calls the "prepositional passive", and some may not. For example:

The war was put up with.
*Andy was gone out with.

Unfortunately, the critera for distinguishing between acceptability and non-acceptability are quite vague. CoGEL states:

The acceptability of the passive is thus accounted for in terms of clause participant roles . . . as well as in terms of convention or idiomatic status.

No specific criteria are given for "convention or idiomatic status". (For what it's worth, I find your example to be a bit awkward, as it seems you also do, but acceptable.)

You may be interested in these ELU questions, none of which (as far as I can tell) provide means for distinguishing between which prepositional passives are acceptable and which aren't:

MarcInManhattan
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  • I hope that someone else is able to provide some more specific criteria that can help to establish which passives are acceptable (e.g., "the city was flown over by several airplanes") and which aren't (e.g., "the city was arrived in by several tourists"). – MarcInManhattan Sep 11 '22 at 22:34
  • The conclusion was arrived at by several independent analysts. – John Lawler Sep 12 '22 at 15:17
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    Great answer! I was spoken to by my manager, but I wasn't going to be done for by anyone. – Rista Sep 12 '22 at 16:24