Active-Passive voice Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The sentence not in the passive voice is Being a student, you must work hard.

Its main clause, 'you must work hard', has the subject doing the action with the active verb work; 'Being a student' is only a participial phrase meaning 'since you are a student', not a passive construction.

The others are all passive, with a form of be + past participle: 'has to be taken', 'was being chased' and 'has been set aside by the court'.

Answer: A

The correct active sentence is People are saying that the Government is spending too little money on roads.

The passive 'It is being said' is present continuous, so the active form keeps the present continuous with a general subject: 'People are saying'. The reported clause 'too little money is being spent by the Government' is also present continuous passive; its agent, the Government, becomes the subject: 'the Government is spending too little money'.

'People were saying ... has been spent' changes both tenses and leaves the clause passive. 'Too little money spent by Government on roading' is ungrammatical, and 'Government have spend' misuses the verb form.

Answer: B

The active voice is They have watched the movie.

The given sentence is in the present perfect passive: has been watched. In the active voice the doer, them, becomes the subject they, and the tense stays present perfect: have watched.

They had watched is past perfect, They watched is simple past and They watch is simple present. Each changes the tense, which a voice change must not do.

Answer: A

The active form is They refused him admittance.

'He was refused admittance' is in the simple past passive (was + past participle). The active voice keeps the same tense, so the verb becomes the simple past 'refused'. The unstated agent becomes a general subject 'They', and the passive subject 'He' becomes the object 'him'.

'had refused' is the past perfect, 'have refused' the present perfect and 'will have refused' the future perfect. Each changes the tense, which a voice change must not do.

Answer: D

The active form is People said that he was angry with her.

"It was said that..." is the passive of 'say' in the past tense with no agent named. In the active voice a general subject such as 'People' is supplied and the tense of the reporting verb stays past: 'People said'. The reported clause 'he was angry with her' is unchanged.

'People say' changes the tense to the present. 'People said that he is angry' changes the reported clause. 'He is said to be angry with her' is still passive, and in the present tense.

Answer: C

The passive form is was requested: 'Mahesh was requested by Neerja to share his book.'

The active sentence is in the simple past ('requested'). The simple past passive is was/were + past participle, and since the new subject 'Mahesh' is singular, the verb is was requested.

'Is requested' and 'is being requested' are present-tense forms, which change the time of the action. 'Were requested' does not agree with the singular subject.

Answer: D

The passive form is We were advised not to go out alone.

In 'People advised us not to go out alone', the object us becomes the subject We, the past tense 'advised' becomes 'were advised', and the general agent 'people' is dropped. The infinitive phrase 'not to go out alone' stays as it is.

'I was advised' changes 'us' to 'I'. 'To get out alone is not advisable' changes the meaning and tense. 'Given the advise' misuses the verb advise for the noun advice.

Answer: D

The passive form is The spies were arrested by the Interpol and sent to jail.

In the active sentence both verbs, 'arrested' and 'sent', are in the past tense and share the object 'the spies'. In the passive, 'the spies' becomes the subject, both verbs become past passive ('were arrested ... and [were] sent'), and the agent appears with 'by'.

The other three options keep 'The Interpol' as the subject, so they are still active, and they also change the tense to the present continuous or the future.

Answer: D

Correct answer: An exam will have been taken by the boys.

The future perfect will have taken becomes will have been taken. The options with would change the modal, and will had been puts a past auxiliary after will.

Answer: D

Correct answer: This work has to be finished by you as soon as you can.

Have to expresses obligation and becomes has to be + participle, singular to agree with this work. Has been finished reports it as already done, which the obligation contradicts.