Active-Passive Voice Questions for SSC CGL

Core Concept: Active vs Passive

In an active sentence, the subject performs the action. In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action — the doer moves to the end (or disappears). Active: 'The chef cooked the meal.' Passive: 'The meal was cooked by the chef.' The key shift is subject and object swap, plus a change in the verb structure. SSC tests your ability to convert between them without changing meaning, and to recognize when passive is grammatically correct or stylistically required.

• Active: Subject (doer) + Verb + Object (receiver)
• Passive: Subject (receiver) + Auxiliary verb + Past Participle + by + Object (doer)
• The doer in passive voice is called the 'agent' and comes after 'by'
• Passive is used when the doer is unknown, unimportant, or obvious
• Tense of the main verb does NOT change; only the auxiliary changes

Auxiliary Verb Rules by Tense

The auxiliary verb in passive voice must match the tense of the active sentence. This is where most aspirants slip up. If active is 'is cooking', passive is 'is being cooked' (present continuous). If active is 'has cooked', passive is 'has been cooked' (present perfect). The pattern: take the auxiliary from the active sentence, add 'be' in the correct form, then add past participle of the main verb.

• Simple Present: is/are + past participle. Active: 'He writes a letter.' Passive: 'A letter is written by him.'
• Present Continuous: is/are + being + past participle. Active: 'She is eating food.' Passive: 'Food is being eaten by her.'
• Present Perfect: has/have + been + past participle. Active: 'They have completed the work.' Passive: 'The work has been completed by them.'
• Simple Past: was/were + past participle. Active: 'He built the house.' Passive: 'The house was built by him.'
• Past Continuous: was/were + being + past participle. Active: 'She was reading a book.' Passive: 'A book was being read by her.'
• Simple Future: will be + past participle. Active: 'He will solve the problem.' Passive: 'The problem will be solved by him.'

Verbs That Cannot Be Passivized

Not all verbs can become passive. Intransitive verbs (verbs that do not take a direct object) cannot be passivized. Examples: 'go', 'come', 'happen', 'occur', 'sleep', 'die', 'exist', 'sit', 'lie'. You cannot say 'The bed was slept by him' — it's grammatically wrong. SSC often tests this by giving you a sentence with an intransitive verb and asking if passive is correct. The answer is always 'no'.

• Intransitive verbs have no object, so there is nothing to become the subject of passive
• Common intransitive verbs: arrive, depart, fall, rise, appear, seem, belong, consist, depend, matter
• Transitive verbs (have a direct object) can be passivized: 'The teacher taught the lesson' → 'The lesson was taught by the teacher'
• Some verbs are both transitive and intransitive depending on context: 'He ran a race' (transitive, can be passive) vs 'He ran away' (intransitive, cannot be passive)

Omitting the Agent (by + doer)

In passive voice, the agent (the 'by' phrase) is optional and often omitted. This happens when the doer is unknown, obvious, or unimportant. Example: 'The bridge was destroyed in the war' (we don't know or care who destroyed it). SSC tests whether you recognize when omitting the agent is correct. If a sentence says 'The letter was written' without mentioning who wrote it, that's grammatically fine — the agent is simply not stated.

• Omit the agent when it is unknown or unimportant to the meaning
• Omit the agent when it is obvious from context: 'He was arrested' (by police — obvious)
• Omit the agent when the focus is on the action or result, not the doer
• Do NOT omit the agent if it is essential to the meaning: 'The book was written by Shakespeare' — the agent is crucial information

Common SSC Conversion Patterns

SSC CGL typically asks you to convert 3-4 sentences from active to passive or vice versa. The patterns are predictable. You will see simple present, simple past, and present perfect most often. Rarely, you'll see future or continuous tenses. The trick is to identify the tense first, apply the correct auxiliary, swap subject and object, and check that the main verb is in past participle form.

• Pattern 1 (Simple Present): Subject + Verb + Object → Object + is/are + Verb(past participle) + by + Subject
• Pattern 2 (Simple Past): Subject + Verb(past) + Object → Object + was/were + Verb(past participle) + by + Subject
• Pattern 3 (Present Perfect): Subject + has/have + Verb(past participle) + Object → Object + has/have + been + Verb(past participle) + by + Subject
• Always check: Is the main verb in past participle form? Is the auxiliary correct for the tense? Have subject and object swapped?

• Forgetting to add 'been' in perfect tenses. Wrong: 'The work has completed by him.' Correct: 'The work has been completed by him.'
• Using the wrong auxiliary for the tense. Wrong: 'A letter is wrote by him.' Correct: 'A letter is written by him.' (Past participle, not simple past.)
• Trying to passivize intransitive verbs. Wrong: 'The accident was happened yesterday.' Correct: 'The accident happened yesterday.' (Happen is intransitive.)
• Swapping subject and object incorrectly. Wrong: 'By the teacher the lesson was taught.' Correct: 'The lesson was taught by the teacher.' (Agent comes at the end, not the beginning.)
• Changing the meaning during conversion. Active: 'He wrote the letter.' Wrong passive: 'The letter was written to him.' Correct: 'The letter was written by him.' (Don't confuse 'by' with 'to'.)

• SWAP-BE-PAST: Subject and Object swap, add BE (with correct auxiliary), use PAST participle of main verb.
• Agent = Doer. In passive, the agent comes after 'by' at the end. Think: 'by the AGENT'.
• Intransitive = No object = No passive. Mnemonic: 'In-transitive = In-complete action' (no receiver).
• Tense changes the AUXILIARY, not the main verb. Main verb is ALWAYS past participle in passive.

• SSC CGL typically gives 2-3 active-passive conversion questions in the English section. They appear as 'Sentence Correction' or 'Identify the Correct Sentence' type questions.
• Recent papers (2022-2024) show a trend toward testing 'Present Perfect' and 'Simple Past' tenses more than others. Practice these two heavily.
• Watch for 'trick' questions where a sentence looks passive but is actually intransitive (e.g., 'The child was slept peacefully' — wrong). These are common in SSC.
• If a sentence omits the agent (no 'by' phrase), that is usually CORRECT in SSC answers. Do not mark it as wrong just because the doer is not mentioned.
• Time-saving tip: In a 2-hour paper, spend max 1-2 minutes on each voice question. If you know the rules, conversion is mechanical. Move on quickly.