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Original sentence:

You substitute A for B.

Which of these is correct transformation of that sentence?

B is substituted by A.

B is substituted for by A.

vaer-k
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    Those are not passive transforms of the example sentence you started with. You was the agent subject, not A. – John Lawler Jan 06 '23 at 18:48
  • Does this answer your question? "Replace with" versus "replace by" (active/passive has a bearing on preferred preposition usage). – FumbleFingers Jan 06 '23 at 18:50
  • @WeatherVane I would love to do that. How can I edit and improve it? It was simply closed with little explanation, so I don't know how to better articulate it. – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 19:38
  • If you edit it, it will be flagged as "recent activity" and people can vote to reopen. Reposting the almost identical question isn't the way forward, as you should know. – Weather Vane Jan 06 '23 at 19:40
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    Edit your question so it fits our guidelines and then post on English.Meta to see if you can get people to vote to re-open it. – Kit Z. Fox Jan 06 '23 at 19:49
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    @KitZ.Fox I don't know how better to ask this. It's a very simple question, and should require only a very simple answer. Could you point me to which guideline it violates? – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 19:51
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    It says in the close banner: "Please include the research you've done" – Kit Z. Fox Jan 06 '23 at 19:52
  • @KitZ.Fox should that research be peer-reviewed? – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 19:53
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    @KitZ.Fox I would happy to do further research on this topic, but because I don't know enough to articulate the question to a search engine, I'm struggling to find an answer. That is the entire reason that sites like this exist. – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 19:54
  • @KitZ.Fox My original question did in fact contain the information I researched that helped me to articulate my question, but it was closed because it wasn't correct. – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 19:56
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    You are mistaken. This site is not for inarticulate questions. If your original question was clearer than this one, than you might consider editing it again. – Kit Z. Fox Jan 06 '23 at 19:57
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    @KitZ.Fox You are mistaken; I never claimed the site was for inarticulate questions. I said it was for questions that are difficult to articulate to a search engine, which is another thing entirely. Why should I edit back to the original question? It was already closed in that state and I have no knowledge to improve upon it. I don't have the knowledge to follow up on my research to better understand what questions to ask. I have no recourse whatsoever because of the absolute refusal to be helpful in any way here. – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 20:09
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    @vaer-k "Gatekeeping experts use their pedantic powers to prevent learners from asking questions, so I have stripped as much as possible from this question in order to eliminate as many possible opportunities for pedants to object to some trivial misconception in my question" This isn't the reason most likely to be successful. Also it's probably a duplicate. Also, you can probably use google ngrams and compare the relative frequencies. But on the surface it is not an unreasonable question. If it stays closed here maybe try [ell.se]? – Mitch Jan 06 '23 at 20:16
  • @Mitch thank you, that's a good idea. it's refreshing to find at least one person willing to offer some helpful advice. – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 20:23
  • @vaer-k What the others said ain't wrong. Even if they are ... unwelcoming... it is still their house. You catch more flies with honey than pissing in a violin and all those mixed and jumbled metaphors. – Mitch Jan 06 '23 at 20:27
  • Most of the previous questions about double prepositions (such as the OP's for by) are on ELL, but here is a closed ELU question on the topic. – Weather Vane Jan 06 '23 at 20:30
  • @WeatherVane "Double prepositions". Thank you! Now I have something to go on. That's all I had hoped for – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 20:31
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    @vaer-k Just so you understand the mechanics of this site, this question was originally closed by 3 people, not just the single one you called out. But the process worked (your posting on meta, the action taken by the mod) and you have a link to the duplicates now. – Mitch Jan 06 '23 at 23:52
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    @Mitch I understand and I appreciate your follow-up explanation, and I appreciate the links to the duplicates too – vaer-k Jan 06 '23 at 23:57

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