Active-Passive voice Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The passive of I have often told you to switch off the lights is You have often been told to switch off the lights by me. The present perfect have told becomes have been told and the object you becomes the subject.

The second option scrambles the sentence, the third is not passive, and the fourth uses the past continuous passive were being told, which changes the tense.

Answer: B

The active voice is 'The manager permitted Rajesh to go home a little early.'

In the passive sentence 'Rajesh was permitted by the manager', the doer is the manager. In the active voice the manager becomes the subject and the tense, past, stays the same.

Option A changes the tense to present perfect, C swaps the doer and D uses the future.

To change to the active voice, put the doer, the manager, first, followed by the verb in the same tense and the object. The passive 'was permitted' is the simple past, so the active verb is 'permitted'. The sentence 'The manager permitted Rajesh to go home a little early' says exactly the same thing.

Answer: D

The passive voice is 'A rabbit with a watch was seen going into a hole by Alice.'

The active sentence is in the simple past ('saw'). The passive uses 'was seen' with the object as the new subject and the doer in a 'by' phrase.

Options A and B use present tenses, and C mixes up the objects, saying that a hole was going into a rabbit.

For the passive of a sentence in the simple past, the verb is 'was/were' plus the past participle. The object of the active sentence, 'a rabbit with a watch', becomes the subject, and the doer is introduced by 'by'. Option D follows this exactly and keeps the meaning.

Answer: D

The passive form is By whom is this mess being created ?

The active question 'Who is creating this mess?' is in the present continuous. Its passive keeps that tense, using 'is being' plus the past participle 'created'. The subject 'who' becomes the agent 'by whom', placed first, and the object 'this mess' becomes the subject. As a question, the auxiliary 'is' comes before the subject: by whom is this mess being created?

'By whom this mess is being created?' keeps statement word order, so it is not a proper question. 'By whom has this mess been created?' changes the tense to present perfect, and 'Who has been created this mess?' is ungrammatical.

Answer: C

The active voice is The teacher explained the lesson clearly.

In the passive sentence, the lesson is the subject and the teacher the agent, and the verb was explained is in the simple past. In the active voice the agent becomes the subject, the subject becomes the object, and the tense stays the same: explained.

The teacher is explaining the lesson clearly is active but changes the tense to the present continuous. The lesson has been explained clearly by the teacher and The lesson will be explained clearly by teacher are still passive, and each changes the tense as well.

Answer: C

The passive form is All the clothes have been folded by Sandra.

The active sentence is in the present perfect tense (has folded). Its passive is has/have been + past participle. The new subject, all the clothes, is plural, so it takes have been: 'All the clothes have been folded by Sandra.'

'Were folded' and 'was folded' change the tense to the simple past. 'Has been folded' keeps the tense but makes the singular verb agree wrongly with the plural subject clothes, and 'was folded' has the same agreement error.

Answer: D

The passive voice is By whom were you taught English ?

In the active question Who taught you English?, who is the subject and you the object. In the passive, the object you becomes the subject, the verb becomes were taught (past tense of be + past participle), and the doer who becomes by whom, with the auxiliary before the subject because it is a question.

'By who' uses the subject form after a preposition and lacks question word order. 'Who taught English to you?' is still active, and 'English, who taught you?' is not a passive at all.

Answer: B

The active voice is One should keep one's promises.

Promises should be kept is a passive sentence with no doer named. To make it active, an indefinite subject is supplied, here one, and the subject of the passive, promises, becomes the object: One should keep one's promises. The modal should is kept.

'Promises are to be kept' is still passive, and 'One's promises should be kept by one' is passive too, with an awkward agent added. 'Promises can not be kept' changes the meaning from obligation to impossibility.

Answer: B

The correct passive is The wall is being built by the mason.

The active sentence is in the present continuous (is building). Its passive keeps the continuous aspect: the object becomes the subject, and the verb becomes is being plus the past participle.

\[ \text{is building} \rightarrow \text{is being built} \]

The wall is built by the mason is the passive of the simple present (builds) and loses the sense of work in progress. The mason builds the wall is still active, and the last option is not a grammatical sentence.

Answer: D

The correct passive is The poor must not be looked down on by us.

The passive of a modal sentence is formed with modal + be + past participle: 'must not look down on' becomes 'must not be looked down on'. Look down on is a phrasal-prepositional verb, so the whole group 'down on' stays with the verb in the passive.

The options without be ('must not looked') are ungrammatical, and 'looked on' drops down, which changes the meaning from 'despise' to 'watch'.