- The pizza is delicious. Are you served? – he asks his friend.
Upon such inquiry, the notion one has is that someone is being served by someone else, isn't it? But let us leave aside the possible interpretations now attributed to this annunciation and focus our attention only on the grammatical aspects that are part of it. So let's look at:
The first one concerns the verbal transitivity, since the verb serve classifies as direct and indirect transitive at the same time, for as we serve, we serve something to someone.
Following this line of reasoning, let's associate it with verbal voices. In this sense, as the grammatical postulates reveal, only direct transitive verbs admit the passive voice, noticeable in the following case:
He served the pizza.
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Transforming prayer to the passive voice, we have:
Pizza was served by him.
If we wanted to complement the statement, we could choose:
he served the pizza to the friend.
We have the direct transitive part of the verb, already analyzed, but what about the indirect transitive part?
He served his friend.
We cannot say that the friend was (or is) served by him.
In this way, with the intention of transforming the entire prayer (followed by the added complement) to the passive voice, we will have as a result:
A pizza was served by him to his friend.
So we come to the central point of our discussion: are you served?
Nothing to say, as it is grammatically correct and more elegant to say:
The pizza is delicious. Do you want to try it out?
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Brazil School Team
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
DUARTE, Vânia Maria do Nascimento. ""Are you served?" or “Want to try it”?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/voce-esta-servido-ou-quer-experimentar.htm. Accessed on July 27, 2021.
