Active & Passive Voice
🔒 Log in to trackTense-by-tense conversions in action
🔒 Log in to trackWork one row at a time. For each, keep the tense and change only the verb skeleton:
| Active | Passive |
|---|---|
| Ram writes a story | A story is written by Ram |
| Sita is drawing a map | A map is being drawn by Sita |
| They have caught the thief | The thief has been caught |
| The cook made dinner | Dinner was made by the cook |
| The boys were flying kites | Kites were being flown by the boys |
| She had finished the work | The work had been finished by her |
| The PM will address the nation | The nation will be addressed by the PM |
| He will have completed it | It will have been completed |
Number agreement restarts in the passive. The new subject decides is/are, was/were, has/have: 'They have completed the projects' → 'The projects have been completed' — the has of the active dies. SSC always plants one option that forgets to re-agree.
The two 'being/been' positions: continuous tenses take being (is being built, was being built); perfect tenses take been (has been taken, had been taken, will have been taken). Modals take plain be: will/can/must/should/may + be + V3. Any 'is been built' or 'will being taken' is impossible.
Verb groups that resist the table: have/own/possess, resemble, lack, suit, fit, become are normally stative — 'A car is had by him' is not English. When a stem uses these, expect a 'no passive possible' or a restructured answer, not a mechanical conversion.
Detailed notes
One row at a time
Every voice item is one row of the conversion table recited correctly. Identify the active tense, then produce its passive skeleton:
| Active | Passive | Example |
|---|---|---|
| writes | is / are + V3 | Ram writes a story → A story is written by Ram |
| is writing | is / are being + V3 | Sita is drawing a map → A map is being drawn by Sita |
| has written | has / have been + V3 | They have caught the thief → The thief has been caught |
| wrote | was / were + V3 | The cook made dinner → Dinner was made by the cook |
| was writing | was / were being + V3 | The boys were flying kites → Kites were being flown by the boys |
| had written | had been + V3 | She had finished the work → The work had been finished by her |
| will write | will be + V3 | The PM will address the nation → The nation will be addressed by the PM |
| will have written | will have been + V3 | He will have completed it → It will have been completed |
The being/been slot rule
- Continuous in the active → being: is being built, was being built, will be being built (rare) — the word being only ever follows a continuous be or a modal's be.
- Perfect in the active → been: has been taken, had been taken, will have been taken — been only ever follows have/had/will have.
- Modal → plain be: will be published, must be obeyed — neither being nor been.
So is been built and will being taken are impossible; if an option contains them, kill it without reading further.
Re-agreement: the new subject decides
After conversion, is/are, was/were, has/have must agree with the NEW subject, not the old one: They have completed the projects → The projects have been completed — the have of the active dies and the projects now govern. Setters plant one option that forgets to re-agree; sweep for it before anything else. The clerk has filed the returns → The returns have been filed by the clerk (not has been).
Two nouns, two passives
Verbs that take two objects — give, send, offer, grant, show, teach, tell, award — produce two legal passives: The teacher gave the students homework → The students were given homework (person promoted) OR Homework was given to the students (thing promoted). The keyed answer usually promotes the person; the corrupted decoy drops the to: Homework was given the students is wrong.
Tenses with no passive
Present perfect continuous (has been writing), past perfect continuous (had been writing) and future continuous (will be writing) have no passive row. When a stem uses one, the exam either avoids it or expects the nearest simple row. Do not invent is being been written — it does not exist.
Stative verbs resist too
A car is had by him is not English. Have/own/possess, resemble, lack, suit, fit, cost normally refuse the passive. If a stem uses them, look for a no passive possible judgement rather than a conversion.
Quick revision
- Perfect rows: has/have been, had been, will have been + V3. Continuous rows: is/are/was/were being + V3. Modals: be + V3, nothing between.
- being after continuous be; been after have/had; never is been, never will being.
- Re-agree with the NEW subject before checking anything else.
- Double-object verbs: person-promoted passive is keyed; the thing-promoted one must keep to.
- No passive: perfect continuous tenses; have/own/resemble/lack/suit.
Types of questions asked
Every way this subtopic shows up in exams — how to recognise it, the formula or logic to use, and a solved example.
Type 1: Perfect-row passives (has/had/will have been + V3)very common2 practice Q
The active verb is has written / had written / will have written; the options differ in been, the auxiliary, or the tense.
- Tag the active tense: present perfect, past perfect or future perfect.
- Produce its row: has/have been + V3, had been + V3, will have been + V3.
- Agree the auxiliary with the new subject; keep the by-agent in object case.
Why it works: the perfect rows are the most-set rows in the paper, and every wrong option breaks exactly one cell (been dropped, tense shifted, agreement lost).
Example: Select the passive form: The workers have painted the gate.
Present perfect → has/have been + V3; new subject the gate is singular: The gate has been painted by the workers.
Type 2: Continuous-row passives (is/are/was/were being + V3)very common2 practice Q
The active verb is is writing / was writing type; options juggle being, been and the bare participle.
- Continuous active → being row: is/are/was/were + being + V3.
- Match was/were to the new subject's number.
- Refuse is been and is building-type answers that drop the passive entirely.
Why it works: being is the continuous marker; the moment the active is continuous, the passive must show being — options without it are dead.
Example: Select the passive form: The masons are laying the bricks.
Present continuous → are being laid: The bricks are being laid by the masons. 'Are laid' would claim a habitual act, not an ongoing one.
Type 3: Re-agreement with the new subjectcommon2 practice Q
The active subject is plural (they, the workers) and the promoted object is singular (the gate, the trophy) — or the reverse; one option agrees with the OLD subject.
- Promote the object; note its number: singular or plural.
- Choose is/was/has for a singular new subject; are/were/have for a plural one.
- Only then check the rest of the row (been, V3, by-agent).
Why it works: the helping verb follows its own subject, which changed; options built from the old subject's number are the planted fault.
Example: Select the passive form: The clerk has filed all the returns.
New subject the returns is plural → have been filed: The returns have been filed by the clerk. 'Has been filed' agrees with the clerk, not with the new subject.
Type 4: being vs been slot discriminationcommon2 practice Q
The options are identical except for the being/been word — e.g. is being repaired vs is been repaired vs was being repaired.
- Ask what the active tense is: continuous or perfect.
- Continuous → being; perfect → been; modal → neither.
- Check the auxiliary's tense matches the active exactly.
Why it works: being and been live in fixed slots; swapping them is the single most planted voice error in the paper.
Example: Select the passive form: The engineers were repairing the bridge when we crossed.
Past continuous → was being repaired: The bridge was being repaired when we crossed. 'Was been repaired' puts been in a continuous slot — impossible.
Type 5: Double-object verb: person-promoted passivecommon2 practice Q
The stem has a person and a thing after verbs like give, grant, show, offer, award; one correct option promotes the person, decoys corrupt the other passive.
- Identify the indirect object (person) and direct object (thing).
- The keyed passive usually promotes the person: person + was/were + V3 + thing + by-agent.
- If an option promotes the thing instead, it must carry to before the person — without to it is broken.
Why it works: both passives are legal, but the person-promoted one needs no preposition, so the setter corrupts the thing-promoted one by deleting to.
Example: Select the passive form: The principal granted Meena a scholarship.
Person promoted: Meena was granted a scholarship by the principal. 'A scholarship was granted Meena' is broken — the thing-promoted version needs to: granted to Meena.
Shortcut tricks
⚡ Row-recall
Identify the active tense, then recite its passive row: present cont. → is/are being + V3; past perf. → had been + V3; future → will be + V3. Options break exactly one cell of the row.
⚡ Re-agreement sweep
After converting, make is/are/was/were/has/have agree with the NEW subject — check this before anything else.
⚡ being vs been slot
Continuous in the active → being. Perfect in the active → been. Modal → neither (plain be).
Where students lose marks
Writing 'is been' for a continuous passive (correct: is being).
Writing 'is being' for a perfect passive (correct: has been).
Keeping the active subject as subject ('The cook was made dinner by…').
Forgetting by + object-case pronoun.
Practice sets — 15 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Each answer comes with a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 10 questions
Suggested time 5 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.