Active & Passive Voice
🔒 Log in to trackTwo voice conversions per shift, built from an eight-row tense table and five named fault classes. Learn the table once — simple present to future perfect, being vs been slots, modal + be + V3, the Let-anchor for imperatives and By-whom order for questions — and both directions (active→passive, passive→active) become 25-second kills.
One page per subtopic: detailed notes, every question type, formulas, tricks and practice sets.
Every formula on one printable page, grouped by subtopic.
3 exam-level questions worked step by step.
67 questions — untimed practice or a timed test with analysis.
Track record in the exam
Questions per shift in recent SSC CGL papers.
Test difficulty mix (67 questions)
Question patterns exams keep repeating
Taken from previous-year papers. If a pattern is marked "very common", expect to see it in your exam.
Statement conversion: active to passive
very commonA declarative stem in the active voice with a transitive verb; the options are be + V3 skeletons that differ in the auxiliary chain, in being/been, or in agreement with the new subject.
How to solve: Name the active tense and say its passive row aloud (was writing → was being + V3). Promote the object to subject, rebuild the verb from the row, re-agree is/are/was/were/has/have with the NEW subject, and move the doer behind by in the object case. Then eliminate options by fault: wrong form after be, being/been swapped, tense row changed, agreement lost.
Example: Select the passive form: 'The workers have painted the gate.'
Present perfect row → has/have been + V3; new subject 'the gate' is singular: The gate has been painted by the workers. 'Have been painted' agrees with the old subject — the planted fault.
Statement conversion: passive to active
very commonThe stem already shows be/have been + V3 and asks for the active; the options differ in the active verb's tense (gave / has given / had given / gives).
How to solve: Ignore the participle — every passive row ends in V3. Read the FIRST auxiliary to fix the tense (had been → past perfect, was → simple past, is being → present continuous, will be → future). Promote the by-agent to subject; if there is no agent, start with They. Let the old subject exit in the object case (she → her, we → us).
Example: Select the active form: 'The walls had been whitewashed by the masons.'
had been + V3 → past perfect: The masons had whitewashed the walls. 'Have whitewashed' shifts the row to present perfect — the commonest decoy.
Imperative conversion: the Let structure
commonThe stem is an order: a base verb with no subject ('Shut the door', 'Do not pluck the flowers'); the keyed option begins with Let.
How to solve: Use Let + object + be + V3 for the order; for a negative order put not after the object (Let the flowers not be plucked) or switch to a modal version (should not be plucked). Reject options without Let (they turn the order into a statement) and any form after be that is not V3.
Example: Select the passive form: 'Switch off the mobile.'
Let the mobile be switched off. 'Let the mobile switched off' drops be; 'The mobile is switched off' is a statement, not the order.
Request and advice frames
commonThe stem carries please or kindly (request), advice in command form, or a warning (Do not drink and drive); the keyed option opens with You are requested / advised / warned.
How to solve: Swap the polite word for its frame — please/kindly → You are requested to, advice → You are advised to, danger → You are warned not to — and keep a base verb after to. The negative sits before to: requested not to smoke. Everything else in the sentence crosses unchanged.
Example: Select the passive form: 'Please post this letter today itself.'
You are requested to post this letter today itself. The letter cannot be made the requested party, and 'to posting' breaks the frame.
Interrogative conversions
commonThe stem ends with a question mark; who, whom or what leads it. The options differ mainly in word order (By whom was... vs By whom the... was) and in who/whom choice.
How to solve: Decide the wh-word's job first. Doer (who) → By whom + auxiliary + new subject + V3, with question order (auxiliary before subject). Receiver (whom/what) → the wh-word itself is promoted to subject: Who was appointed by the manager? Check the order before the verb — order faults outnumber verb faults here.
Example: Select the passive form: 'Who broke the window?'
By whom was the window broken? 'By whom the window was broken?' is statement order; 'Who was broken the window' scrambles who did what.
Vague agent handling
commonThe stem's subject is someone, people, they or one; one option keeps 'by someone/by them' and the keyed one drops it; the rest of the sentence is identical.
How to solve: Vague agents add no information, so drop them; keep specific agents (the gardener, everyone, the committee). Dropping the agent never changes the tense row — convert first, drop last. If two options differ only in the by-phrase, the shorter (agent-less) one is keyed.
Example: Select the passive form: 'Someone has switched off the fans.'
The fans have been switched off. Present perfect row with the vague someone dropped; 'by someone' is grammatical but never the keyed answer.
being vs been slot trap
very commonOptions identical except for the slot word: is being repaired / is been repaired / was being repaired — or the stem is continuous and one option lacks being altogether.
How to solve: being belongs only to continuous rows (is/are/was/were being + V3); been belongs only to perfect rows (has/have/had/will have been + V3); a modal takes plain be with neither. Fix the active tense first, then pick the slot word — never by ear, because is been and is being sound alike at speed.
Example: Select the passive form: 'The engineers were repairing the bridge.'
Past continuous → The bridge was being repaired — being marks the continuous; 'was been repaired' puts been in a continuous slot and is impossible.
Voice fault inside a sentence (error-spotting and improvement)
occasionalThe item is not a conversion but a sentence with an embedded voice fault: is been built, must obeyed, by he, a plural new subject with has been, or a passive built from an objectless verb.
How to solve: Sweep for the four fault classes in order: (1) wrong verb form after be (V1/V2 where V3 belongs), (2) being/been in the wrong slot, (3) tense row changed or agreement lost with the new subject, (4) pronoun case or role reversal. The part that breaks a class is the error.
Example: 'The new scheme has being launched / by the government / without much publicity.' Find the error.
Present perfect needs been, not being: has been launched. 'Has being launched' puts being in a perfect slot — the classic voice fault.