Doesn&#x27;t the &quot;was&quot; change who the action applies to?  E.g. &quot;John assaulted a date&quot; vs &quot;John was assaulted by a date&quot;?  I&#x27;m not entirely sure &quot;John was set upon a date&quot; makes sense.  Then again, I&#x27;ve never been great with the specific rules of English, even though it&#x27;s my first language (likely <i>because</i> it&#x27;s my first language, and I learned it not as rules, but through immersion as a child).