Constant Content

Another quick question:

"These items would be welcome by any parent"
"These items would be welcomed by any parent"

Which is correct? Both sound a little clunky to me.

Any thoughts would be welcome ( or welcomed?!)

I'd go for the active voice.

"Parents would welcome these items"
or "Any parent would welcome these items"

In response the your question, it would be "These items would be welcomed by any parent"

I'm not really the grammar god here, so you might want to check with the veterans

Any parent would welcome these items. I'd try to be more specific - not "these items".

Thanks cosmo and jadedragon.

My actual sentence is a bit longer and uses different words to 'items' and 'parents' - that's just what popped into my head as an example. The article is about gifts, (and again teabags and tea-drinker aren't the actual words I'm using, just examples). So the whole structure goes:

"These teabags would be welcomed by any tea-drinker but might seem uninspired."

If I use the active voice I get:

"Any tea-drinker would welcome these teabags but they might seem uninspired."

That seems ambiguous: is it the tea-drinker or the teabags that are uninspired?

I'd really like to use the first structure but that 'welcomed' bit is still bothering me. (hope your answer was right cosmo!) I can't seem to find a grammatical explanation for it anywhere. Might just change it to 'appreciated' and be done with it!

In this case, the word "welcome" is being used as a verb, so welcomed would be appropriate here. For instance, if you replaced "welcome" with "love," you'd use "loved" as below:
These teabags would be loved by any tea-drinker. . .
NOT:
These teabags would be love by any tea-drinker. . .

Ah - I see it now - thanks Celeste.

(Sorry for doubting you Cosmo!)

lol

Just a tip, I usually use Google to check my grammar from time to time. For example, if you type "would be welcomed" in the Google search engine, you'll see the second website is from ESPN which says:

"Wood would be welcomed back - Chicago Cubs Blog"

which means the the sentence "These items would be welcomed by any parent" is probably right (which it is).

Websites for magazines, newspapers, and big time companies like NYtimes, washington post, and ESPN have impeccable grammar and are reliable. If it's from blogs or other sources I'd probably check some more or maybe reword my sentence. Just make sure the site you're basing the grammar on is reliable if you're going to use this tactic.