The
decision has been approved by the committee.
OR
The
decision has been approved from the committee.
Thank
you in advance for your explanation.
Roger
Woodham replies:
'by'
with passive clauses
In
passive constructions, as in your example, the agent of the action
is always introduced with the prepostion by, so the first
one is correct.
We
could turn the passive sentence into an active sentence if we wanted
to use from and say:
This
decision has received approval from the committee.
But
for all passive clauses we need to use by when introducing
the person or thing responsible for the action:
The
walker was killed by a falling tree.
All the roofs on the houses in the village were ripped off by
the tornado.
The
visiting speaker was introduced by the club chairman.
The
only exception to this is when we are talking about the tools used
for the operation rather than the agent bringing about the action.
When
we talk about the tools used for an action we say with rather
then by.
Compare
the following:
She
was killed with a kitchen knife.
She
was killed by an unknown assassin.
The
palace was built with red bricks from the local brickyard.
The
palace was built by a famous architect.
'by'
to express time
By
is used to indicate time up to a particular point:
I
want you to be home by eleven o’ clock (= before eleven
OR at eleven at the latest).
By the time I arrived, everybody had left.
By the end of the lecture, nearly everyone was asleep.
by
or near?
By
also means very close to.
For
example:
Our
house is quite close to the sea, but I would really like to live
right by the sea.
'by'
in
common
phrases
By
is used in a number of common phrases.
Note
the following:
Are
you going to deliver that parcel byhand, or will
you send it by post?
Do
you want to pay for this in cash, by cheque or by credit
card?
You
can get there by air, by road, by rail or
by sea, but however you travel, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
I
have learnt this piece by heart and don’t need to have
the music in front of me.
Note,
however, if we put a determiner in front of the noun, it is no longer
a set phrase and the preposition changes.
Compare
the following:
Why
don’t you send it by email? It’s quicker.
I
learnt about it in an email from Richard.
Did
she come by car?
Yes, she did. She turned up in a brand new sports car!
from
or since?
The
preposition from indicates the starting point of an action.
It is often used with to or till which indicates the
finishing time of the action:
I
normally work from nine to five, sometimes from
ten till six.
You
can drop by at any time during the afternoon. I shall be here
from two onwards.
From
now on you must wear a suit and a tie whenever you go to the
office.
Note
that since is used with the present perfect or past perfect
tense to indicate the starting point of the action. With other tenses
we normally use from.
Compare
the following:
The
office is open from eight o’ clock, but I don’t usually
arrive before nine.
I
have been working on the project since the beginning of
September and hope to finish it by the end of October.
If
you want to practise using some of these words look at our in the You, Meand Us part of our website.
