Clever boys were heard their lessons

[Xinfu]

-Clever boys were heard their lessons.

In this sentence, who delivers the lessons? Is it natural English nowadays?

[Elaina]

Hi!

Not really....I don't really understand what you are trying to say.

Try again.

:thinking:

[wrholt]

I agree with Elaina; it's not natural English, and I don't understand what you're trying to say.

"Clever boys were heard" makes sense as a passive-voice sentence = "Clever boys were heard [by someone]" = "[Someone] heard the boys".

But in your sentence "their lessons" doesn't make sense: there is no place for it in either the passive-voice sentence "clever boys were heard [by someone]" or the active-voice equivalent "[Someone] heard the boys", unless you use a preposition or some other connector to link it to the subject/agent ("[[by] Someone]"), the verb ("heard" or "were heard"), or the direct object/patient ("clever boys").

Do you want to try again?

[Xinfu]

Thank you~