Active and Passive Voice Questions for SSC CHSL

What is Active and Passive Voice

In Active Voice, the subject does the action. The sentence focuses on WHO is doing the work. Example: 'Ram eats the mango.' Here Ram is the doer. In Passive Voice, the focus shifts to the object — the thing receiving the action. Example: 'The mango is eaten by Ram.' The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. Think of it like this: Active = spotlight on the doer. Passive = spotlight on the thing being done.

• Active: Subject + Verb + Object
• Passive: Object + Helping Verb (be-form) + Past Participle + by + Subject
• The object of active becomes the subject of passive
• The subject of active becomes the agent (by + subject) in passive
• The verb changes to: appropriate form of 'be' + past participle (V3)
• If the subject in active is a pronoun, it changes form: I becomes me, he becomes him, they becomes them, we becomes us

Tense-wise Passive Conversion — The Quick Chart

The be-form used in passive depends entirely on the tense of the original active sentence. This is the heart of every SSC question. Memorise this chart and you can crack any conversion question. Perfect tenses use 'been', continuous tenses use 'being', and simple tenses just use is/am/are/was/were.

• Simple Present: is/am/are + V3 (She eats → It is eaten)
• Simple Past: was/were + V3 (He broke → It was broken)
• Simple Future: will be + V3 (She will buy → It will be bought)
• Present Continuous: is/am/are + being + V3 (She is writing → It is being written)
• Past Continuous: was/were + being + V3 (He was making → It was being made)
• Present Perfect: has/have + been + V3 (She has lost → It has been lost)
• Past Perfect: had + been + V3 (He had stolen → It had been stolen)
• Modal (can/may/must/should): Modal + be + V3 (You must do → It must be done)

Special Rules — Sentences Without 'By'

Not every passive sentence needs 'by + agent'. If the agent (doer) is unknown, unimportant, or obvious, we drop the 'by' phrase. SSC often gives options with and without 'by' to trap you. Also, for sentences with two objects (direct and indirect), you have two valid passive forms. Learn to pick the more natural one.

• Drop 'by' when agent is general or unknown: 'English is spoken here' (no 'by people' needed)
• Verbs like know, surprise, please, satisfy, interest take 'with' or 'at', not 'by': 'She is known to everyone'
• For sentences starting with 'Let': Active: Let him do it. Passive: Let it be done by him.
• For imperative sentences: Active: Open the door. Passive: Let the door be opened.
• Intransitive verbs (no object) CANNOT be made passive: verbs like go, come, sleep, laugh have no passive

Question and Negative Sentences in Passive

SSC frequently asks passive conversion of questions and negatives. The structure changes slightly but the core formula stays the same. For questions, the helping verb comes before the subject. For negatives, 'not' is placed after the first helping verb.

• Active Question: Did she sing the song? Passive: Was the song sung by her?
• Active Negative: She does not write letters. Passive: Letters are not written by her.
• WH-questions keep the WH-word at the front: Who broke the glass? → By whom was the glass broken?
• 'Who' in active becomes 'By whom' in passive — this is a very common SSC trap

• Forgetting to change the pronoun case: Writing 'by he' or 'by they' instead of 'by him' or 'by them' — this is the single most common error
• Using wrong be-form for the tense: Writing 'is being written' for simple present (should be 'is written') — be-form must match the original tense exactly
• Adding 'by' when it is unnecessary or wrong: Verbs like 'know' and 'surprise' use 'to' or 'at', not 'by'. 'He is known by everyone' is wrong — it should be 'He is known to everyone'
• Trying to make intransitive verbs passive: Sentences like 'He slept' or 'She laughed' have no object so they cannot be converted — selecting a passive option for these is wrong
• Confusing 'Who' vs 'By whom' in question conversion: In passive, 'Who did this?' must become 'By whom was this done?' — not 'Who was this done by?' in formal SSC answers

• BOSS formula: Be-form + Object becomes Subject + Same tense clue + V3. Think of BOSS — in passive, the object becomes the BOSS (subject) of the sentence.
• For tense memory use the phrase SCPP: Simple uses is/was/will be, Continuous adds being, Perfect adds been, Past Perfect adds had been. Just think S-C-P-P.
• Pronoun change trick: Active pronouns are the 'doers' (I, he, she, they). In passive they become 'objects' (me, him, her, them). Think: doers become done-to in passive.
• The 'By-whom' hook: Whenever you see 'Who' in an active question, just remember this phrase — 'Who becomes By Whom and jumps to the front.'

• SSC CHSL typically gives 2-3 questions on voice in the English section. They appear as 'Choose the correct passive form' or 'Identify the error in the passive sentence' — direct conversion is most common.
• Modal passive (can be done, must be completed, should be submitted) appears very frequently in recent years. Make sure you know Modal + be + V3 cold.
• Questions on passive of imperative sentences (Let the work be done) and interrogative sentences (By whom was it written) are high-frequency — do not skip these.
• In error-spotting questions, check the be-form tense match first — wrong helping verb (like 'is been' instead of 'has been') is the planted error 70 percent of the time.
• Time yourself: a voice conversion question should take no more than 30-40 seconds. Write the formula in your rough space, plug in parts, and verify the pronoun and tense — you will never lose marks here.