‘leave’ in the passive

drbean: ‘The ship left the harbor’, but not ‘The harbor was left by the ship’
drbean: ‘His dad left him alone’, and ‘He was left alone by his dad.’
drbean: ‘His wife left him,’ but not ‘He was left by his wife.’??
drbean: ‘His wife abandoned him,’ and ‘He was abandoned by his wife.’??
drbean: "He left the keys/garbage on a seat’ and ‘The keys/garbage was/were left on a seat’.
drbean: The keys and garbage were left on a seat by a man in a black hat.’
wkalt: drbean: are you asking about correctness or style?
drbean: I’d rather not say or I don’t know.
wkalt: I think all the cases you noted above are correct, but I would say the first variants are the preferred style.
wkalt: yeah that one is the oddest seeming one but I see no reason it’s not correct. Usual advice is “don’t use the passive voice”.
wkalt: right
drbean: ‘She was abandoned by her husband,’ but not, ‘He was abandoned by his wife’?
wkalt: and it’s nothing to do with ‘leave’, it really applies to any verb
drbean: ‘The garbage was left by a man in a black hat’ is OK, but ‘The harbor was left by a ship with a black flag’ is not OK?
wkalt: Neither of those are OK stylistically. Both of them are OK gramatically.
wkalt: I wouldn’t say they are weird, but both can be improved with the active voice. “The ship left the harbor”, “The black-flagged ship left the harbor” are both more natural IMO.