Every sentence that has a subject, verb, and object can be examined through the lens of voice. Voice tells you who is doing the action — whether the grammatical subject is the doer or the receiver.
In active voice, the subject performs the action directly: "The dog bit the man." The agent (dog) is upfront, the action is transparent, the sentence moves forward with energy.
In passive voice, the receiver of the action becomes the grammatical subject: "The man was bitten by the dog." The focus shifts to what happened to the man, and the agent (dog) either appears in a "by" phrase or disappears entirely.
Here is an analogy that locks this in: think of a cricket match. Active voice is the live commentary — "Rohit hit the ball to the boundary." Passive voice is the scorecard entry — "The ball was hit to the boundary (by Rohit)." The scorcard doesn't always say who hit it; often the agent is dropped because it doesn't matter or is obvious.
This shift in focus is why passive voice appears naturally in formal writing, official notices, and scientific contexts — "Applications will be accepted until Friday", "The accused was arrested by the police." SSC CGL passages and sentence correction questions exploit this shift heavily.
What you need to walk into the exam hall knowing: voice transformation is not about rewriting freely. It is a rule-governed mechanical process tied entirely to tense identification. Get the tense wrong, and the whole transformation collapses. Every active sentence has exactly one correct passive equivalent for its tense. That makes this topic highly scoreable — if you know the formula per tense, you cannot be fooled.
The subject-object flip and the pronoun change (I → me, he → him, she → her, they → them, we → us, who → whom) are the mechanical parts. The verb formula is where aspirants lose marks. We will nail both.
Every active-to-passive transformation follows this skeleton:
Active: Subject + Verb + Object
Passive: Object (now Subject) + Auxiliary/ies + Past Participle + (by + Original Subject)
The object becomes the new subject. The original subject becomes the agent in a "by" phrase — and often gets dropped if it's unimportant (e.g., "by someone", "by people", "by them" are routinely omitted).
This is the part you must know cold. There is no shortcut around it — memorize the pattern, not individual sentences.
| Tense | Active Verb Form | Passive Verb Form | |---|---|---| | Simple Present | V1 / V1+s | is/am/are + V3 | | Present Continuous | is/am/are + V1+ing | is/am/are + being + V3 | | Present Perfect | has/have + V3 | has/have + been + V3 | | Simple Past | V2 | was/were + V3 | | Past Continuous | was/were + V1+ing | was/were + being + V3 | | Past Perfect | had + V3 | had + been + V3 | | Simple Future | will + V1 | will + be + V3 | | Future Perfect | will + have + V3 | will + have + been + V3 | | Modal (can/could/may/might/should/must) | Modal + V1 | Modal + be + V3 |
V1 = base form, V2 = past form, V3 = past participle.
Note what is absent from this table: Present Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous, and Future Continuous are generally not converted to passive in standard grammar rules. If an SSC question gives you one of these, look carefully — it is likely a distractor testing whether you know this boundary.
When the original subject moves into the "by" phrase, it shifts to object form:
"You" and "it" stay the same.
This is where SSC CGL questions like to set traps. Look at the structure carefully:
WH-question active: "Who broke the window?" (Simple Past)
Step 1: Identify the tense — Simple Past, so passive verb = was/were + V3.
Step 2: "Who" is the subject performing the action → in passive, it becomes the agent → "by whom".
Step 3: Since the question is interrogative, the passive must also be interrogative.
Step 4: "The window" (object) becomes the new subject.
Result: "By whom was the window broken?"
The "by whom" moves to the front because "who" was the question word. This fronting is non-negotiable in formal grammar.
For Yes/No questions (no WH word), the auxiliary simply inverts: "Did he write the letter?" → "Was the letter written by him?"
When the active sentence has an indefinite subject like "someone", "people", "one", "they" (vague), you drop the "by" phrase entirely in passive:
Some verbs (give, send, teach, tell, offer) take both a direct object and an indirect object. Either object can become the passive subject:
"The teacher gave the students books."
SSC CGL typically tests the first form as correct.
Active: "Open the door." → Passive: "Let the door be opened."
Active: "Do not waste time." → Passive: "Let time not be wasted."
The formula for imperative passive is fixed: Let + object + be + V3.
Before touching the transformation, underline the auxiliary verbs in the active sentence and name the tense. Say it aloud mentally: "is + V-ing = Present Continuous → passive = is/am/are + being + V3." Aspirants who jump to transformation without naming the tense consistently pick the wrong auxiliary. This single pause step eliminates approximately 80% of passive voice errors. In a 5-question voice section, that is 4 marks saved in under 10 extra seconds per question.
Remember the subject pronouns that change: I-W-H-S → I (me), We (us), He (him), She (her). "They" → "them" follows the same logic. Write IWHS on your rough sheet at the start of the exam. When you see any of these in the active subject position, flip immediately. Standard method requires recalling case rules: 15-20 seconds. With IWHS pre-written: 3 seconds. "Who" → "whom" is the one that SSC loves — tag it separately: Who = Whom in passive "by" phrases.
Any continuous tense passive ALWAYS contains "being". Present Continuous → "is/am/are + being + V3". Past Continuous → "was/were + being + V3". If an option for a continuous tense question does not have "being", eliminate it immediately. This cuts four options to two in under 3 seconds. Standard process of checking each option individually: 20-25 seconds. Pattern elimination: 5 seconds.
Any perfect tense passive ALWAYS contains "been". Present Perfect → "has/have + been + V3". Past Perfect → "had + been + V3". Future Perfect → "will + have + been + V3". If the active sentence has "has/have/had + V3", the passive will always contain "been". Eliminate any option without "been" before reading it fully. Step count: Standard checking = 4 options × 3 checks = 12 steps. Pattern marker = 1 check eliminates 2-3 options instantly.
When the active question begins with "Who" and the subject, the passive transformation must begin with "By whom". No SSC option that keeps "whom" at the end ("The window was broken by whom?") is ever correct — that form is informal and ungrammatical for exam purposes. Eliminate any option that does not start with "By whom" when converting a "Who did...?" question. This collapses four options to one or two in a single glance: 4 seconds versus 20 seconds of reading all options fully.
When you encounter a voice transformation question in the exam hall, run this decision sequence:
Step 1 — Identify direction. Is it active → passive or passive → active? Read the instruction word ("Change to Passive Voice" vs. "Identify Active Voice").
Step 2 — Name the tense. Look at the auxiliary verb(s) in the sentence. Name the tense explicitly in your head. Do not skip this.
Step 3 — Apply the formula. From the tense, write the passive verb form: is/am/are for Simple Present, was/were for Simple Past, will be for Simple Future, etc.
Step 4 — Flip subject and object. Object becomes new subject. Original subject goes to "by ___" (or is dropped if vague). Check pronoun form change.
Step 5 — Eliminate by markers. Use BEING marker for continuous tenses and BEEN marker for perfect tenses to eliminate wrong options before reading them fully.
Step 6 — Special check. Is it an interrogative? Ensure "By whom" fronts. Is it imperative? Check "Let + object + be + V3".
Target time per voice question: 30-40 seconds with this framework. If you are spending more, you skipped Step 2.
Why this question: Tests the most fundamental transformation — Simple Present — which aspirants often confuse with Present Perfect passive (mixing up "are taught" vs. "have been taught").
Solving path: Name the tense — "teaches" = Simple Present. Formula: is/am/are + V3. Object = "students" (plural) → "are taught". "Every day" stays as a frequency adverb. Option C. Options A (were taught = Simple Past) and B (have been taught = Present Perfect) are wrong tense. Option D (are being taught) is Present Continuous passive, not Simple Present passive.
Why this question: Present Continuous passive is the single most commonly tested continuous form in SSC CGL. The "being" marker is the decisive factor, and "she → her" pronoun change is a frequent trap.
Solving path: "is writing" = Present Continuous. Formula: is/am/are + being + V3. Object = "a letter" (singular). "She" → "her" in the "by" phrase. Result: "A letter is being written by her." Option A. Option B (has been written) is Present Perfect passive. Option C (was being written) is Past Continuous passive. Option D (is written) is Simple Present passive.
Why this question: Reverse transformation (passive → active) tests whether you can identify tense from the passive form alone, then reconstruct the correct active tense without guessing.
Solving path: Passive verb = "was eaten". Formula reverse-lookup: was/were + V3 = Simple Past passive. Active Simple Past = V2 (past form). Agent = "children" becomes subject. Active verb = "ate". Object = "the cake". Result: "The children ate the cake." Option B. Option A (were eating) is Past Continuous, not Simple Past. Option C (have eaten) is Present Perfect. Option D (eat) is Simple Present.
Why this question: Tests whether you can hold the "by whom" fronting rule under time pressure on an interrogative sentence, which is structurally different from all declarative transformations.
Solving path: "Who broke the window?" — "Who" is the subject, "broke" = Simple Past, "window" = object. Passive tense = was/were + V3. Object "window" (singular) → new subject → "was broken". "Who" → "By whom" fronted at the beginning (interrogative structure). Result: "By whom was the window broken?" Option B. Option A (is broken) is Simple Present passive — wrong tense. Option C (has been broken) is Present Perfect passive — wrong tense. Option D puts "by" at the end — ungrammatical for formal passive interrogative.
Why this question: Present Perfect passive is routinely confused with Simple Past passive. The has/have + been distinction is tested here, and subject-verb agreement (has vs. have) adds a secondary trap.
Solving path: "have completed" = Present Perfect. Formula: has/have + been + V3. Object = "the project" (singular) → new subject → use "has" (singular agreement). "They" → "them". Result: "The project has been completed by them." Option A. Option B (was completed) is Simple Past passive. Option C (have been completed) uses "have" with singular subject — agreement error. Option D (had been completed) is Past Perfect passive.
Mixing up Simple Present and Present Perfect passive. "are taught" (Simple Present) vs. "have been taught" (Present Perfect) look similar but are completely different tenses. Always trace back to the active verb — "teaches" gives Simple Present, not Present Perfect.
Forgetting "being" in Continuous tense passive. Writing "is written" instead of "is being written" for Present Continuous. If the active has V-ing, the passive must have "being". No exception.
Wrong subject-verb agreement in Perfect tense passive. "They have completed the project" becomes "The project has been completed" — not "have been completed." The new subject (project) is singular, so the auxiliary must agree with it, not with the original subject.
Leaving "who" as "who" instead of "whom" in interrogative passive. "Who" as active subject becomes "By whom" in passive. Keeping it as "By who" is always wrong in SSC grammar standards.
Keeping the "by" phrase for vague/indefinite agents. When the active subject is "someone", "people", "one", "they" (general), drop the "by" phrase entirely in passive. "People respect honest workers" → "Honest workers are respected" — not "are respected by people."
Applying passive to intransitive verbs. Verbs like "sleep", "arrive", "go", "die" have no object, so they cannot be passivized. If a question offers a passive form of "She slept soundly," every option is wrong — but SSC CGL does not typically offer such trick questions. The real trap is applying this to phrasal/semi-intransitive verbs. Know that a sentence must have a direct object for standard passive transformation.