Active Passive

🟢 Lite — Quick Review (1h–1d)

Active Passive is a sentence transformation topic that appears regularly in SSC CGL Tier-I and Tier-II. In the active voice, the subject performs the action (e.g., “The teacher explains the lesson”). In the passive voice, the subject receives the action (e.g., “The lesson is explained by the teacher”). The object of an active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.

Rules for Tense-Based Active-Passive Conversion:

Tense	Active Voice	Passive Voice
Simple Present	Subject + V1 + Object	Object + is/am/are + V3 + by Subject
Present Continuous	Subject + is/am/are + V1-ing + Object	Object + is/am/are + being + V3 + by Subject
Present Perfect	Subject + have/has + V3 + Object	Object + have/has + been + V3 + by Subject
Simple Past	Subject + V2 + Object	Object + was/were + V3 + by Subject
Past Continuous	Subject + was/were + V1-ing + Object	Object + was/were + being + V3 + by Subject
Past Perfect	Subject + had + V3 + Object	Object + had + been + V3 + by Subject
Simple Future	Subject + will/shall + V1 + Object	Object + will/shall + be + V3 + by Subject
Future Perfect	Subject + will/shall + have + V3 + Object	Object + will/shall + have + been + V3 + by Subject

Key Formulas:

• Object of active → Subject of passive
• Verb changes: V1 → is/am/are + V3; V2 → was/were + V3; V3 remains V3
• Insert “by” before the original subject
• Modal verbs (can, may, must, should): Object + modal + be + V3

⚡ Exam Tip: In SSC CGL, the most commonly tested tenses are Simple Present (is/are+V3), Simple Past (was/were+V3), and Present Perfect (has/have+been+V3). Watch for the agent “by” — it is often omitted in passive questions when the doer is unknown or unimportant. When a preposition follows the verb in active (e.g., “look at”, “account for”), the preposition is retained before “whom” or “which” in the passive: “The matter was looked into by the committee.”

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🟡 Standard — Regular Study (2d–2mo)

Active Passive — SSC CGL Study Guide

Core Concept: The passive voice is used when the action is more important than the agent, or when the agent is unknown, irrelevant, or obvious. Converting between active and passive requires two main steps: (1) swap subject and object, and (2) change the verb form to match the tense while keeping the same time reference.

Worked Examples by Tense:

Example 1 — Simple Present (Passive): Active: “The police have arrested the thief.” Passive: “The thief has been arrested by the police.” (Note: “have arrested” → “has been arrested”; the object “thief” becomes subject.)

Example 2 — Simple Past (Passive): Active: “She wrote a letter.” Passive: “A letter was written by her.”

Example 3 — Present Continuous (Passive): Active: “The workers are building the bridge.” Passive: “The bridge is being built by the workers.” (Note: “are building” → “is being built”; insert “being” after is/are.)

Example 4 — Past Continuous (Passive): Active: “The boys were playing cricket.” Passive: “Cricket was being played by the boys.”

Example 5 — Present Perfect (Passive): Active: “Someone has stolen my bicycle.” Passive: “My bicycle has been stolen (by someone).” (Note: the agent “by someone” is optional when unspecified.)

Example 6 — Past Perfect (Passive): Active: “He had completed the work before sunset.” Passive: “The work had been completed by him before sunset.”

Example 7 — Future Tense (Passive): Active: “They will finish the project next month.” Passive: “The project will be finished by them next month.”

Modal Verbs in Passive: Active: “We should submit the report.” Passive: “The report should be submitted by us.”

Active: “You must read the instructions.” Passive: “The instructions must be read by you.”

Impersonal Passive (SSC CGL Favourite): Some verbs are used with “it” as a dummy subject in passive:

• Active: “They say that he is innocent.”
• Passive: “It is said that he is innocent.”
• Similar: It is believed, It is known, It is reported, It is rumoured, It is considered.

Special Cases:

Case 1 — Prepositional Verbs: Active: “The committee will look into the matter.” Passive: “The matter will be looked into by the committee.” (The preposition “into” stays attached to the verb “look into” in the passive.)

Active: “Someone has taken care of the children.” Passive: “The children have been taken care of (by someone).”

Case 2 — Two Objects (give-type verbs): Active: “She gave me a gift.” Passive: “A gift was given to me by her.” OR “I was given a gift by her.” (Both objects can become subject; usually the recipient becomes the subject.)

Case 3 — Causative Have: Active: “He got his car repaired.” Passive: “His car was repaired.” (The agent is implied, not stated with “by”.)

Common Student Mistakes:

• Forgetting to change the verb form when converting — the tense of the passive must match the original tense’s time frame.
• Inserting “by” when the agent is unnecessary or unknown.
• In Present Continuous passive, omitting “being” (e.g., writing “is built” instead of “is being built”).
• Incorrectly handling past perfect passive — “had been V3” is the correct form, not “was been V3”.

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🔴 Extended — Deep Study (3mo+)

Active Passive — Comprehensive SSC CGL Notes

Theoretical Foundation: The active-passive distinction belongs to the grammar of voice (Latin: vox). English has two voices: active and passive. The passive is formed analytically (not synthetically) using forms of the auxiliary “be” plus the past participle. This construction is particularly common in formal, academic, and news writing, which is why SSC CGL tests it extensively in both Tier-I (direct questions) and Tier-II (descriptive letter/essay writing where candidates must use appropriate voice).

Full Tense Chart with All Forms:

Tense	Active Example	Passive Example
S. Present	The cat eats the fish.	The fish is eaten by the cat.
P. Present	The cats eat the fish.	The fish are eaten by the cats.
S. Present Cont.	The cat is eating the fish.	The fish is being eaten by the cat.
P. Present Cont.	The cats are eating the fish.	The fish are being eaten by the cats.
S. Present Perf.	The cat has eaten the fish.	The fish has been eaten by the cat.
P. Present Perf.	The cats have eaten the fish.	The fish have been eaten by the cats.
S. Past	The cat ate the fish.	The fish was eaten by the cat.
P. Past	The cats ate the fish.	The fish were eaten by the cats.
S. Past Cont.	The cat was eating the fish.	The fish was being eaten by the cat.
P. Past Cont.	The cats were eating the fish.	The fish were being eaten by the cats.
Past Perf.	The cat had eaten the fish.	The fish had been eaten by the cat.
S. Future	The cat will eat the fish.	The fish will be eaten by the cat.
Future Perf.	The cat will have eaten the fish.	The fish will have been eaten by the cat.

SSC CGL Question Types (2019-2023):

Type 1 — Direct Conversion: Convert the given active sentence to passive (or vice versa). Most common in Tier-I, 1-2 marks per question.

Type 2 — Error Detection: Identify the correct passive form from four options. Watch for:

• Incorrect auxiliary choice (was vs. is, were vs. are)
• Missing “being” in continuous tenses
• Wrong past participle form

Type 3 — Indirect Speech + Passive: When reporting verbs appear, combine both rules:

• Active: “He said, ‘The manager has approved the proposal.’”
• Passive: “The proposal has been approved by the manager,” he said. OR “It was said that the proposal had been approved by the manager.”

Type 4 — Letter/Application Writing (Tier-II): Use passive voice appropriately in formal letter writing:

• “Your application is received and is being processed.”
• “You are advised to submit the documents by the 15th.”
• “The matter is being looked into by the concerned authority.”

Advanced Passive Rules:

Rule 1 — Infinitive Passive: Active: “He wants someone to help him.” Passive: “He wants to be helped by someone.” (Subject + to be + V3)

Rule 2 — Gerund Passive: Active: “He enjoys people praising him.” Passive: “He enjoys being praised by people.”

Rule 3 — Let + Passive: Active: “Let him do the work.” Passive: “Let the work be done by him.” (Cannot use “him” as subject of passive let-sentence.)

Rule 4 — Emphatic “do” in Passive: Active: “He really does study.” Passive: “Study he really does do.” (awkward; better to avoid passive for emphatic forms.)

Rule 5 — Transitive vs Intransitive: Only transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object) can form a true passive. Intransitive verbs (arrive, sleep, die, go) cannot be converted to passive. However, some verbs can be both (e.g., “The meeting started at 9” — no passive; “The manager started the meeting” — has passive: “The meeting was started by the manager”).

Rule 6 — Reflexive Pronouns: Active sentences with reflexive pronouns (myself, himself, etc.) do not have a standard passive equivalent. “He hurt himself” → cannot become passive in standard English.

SSC CGL PYQ Pattern:

• 2023 Tier-I: 2 questions — 1 Simple Past passive, 1 Modal passive
• 2022 Tier-I: 2 questions — 1 Present Perfect passive, 1 Prepositional verb passive
• 2021 Tier-I: 1 question — Two-object construction (give-type verb)
• Tier-II (Descriptive): Passive used in formal letter writing, often 5-8 marks
• Difficulty: Usually moderate; trick questions involve continuous tenses and past perfect

⚡ Advanced Exam Tip: When a sentence has two objects (indirect and direct), SSC CGL usually accepts either as the subject in passive. However, the preferred form is to promote the recipient (person) to subject: “She gave me a book” → “I was given a book by her” is more natural than “A book was given to me by her.” In multiple-choice questions, the examiner may include both; choose the one where the personal object becomes the subject.

⚡ Second Exam Tip: For prepositional verbs in passive, the preposition must always come before the agent: “The patient was operated upon by the surgeon” (NOT “The patient was operated by the surgeon”). The preposition is part of the phrasal verb and cannot be dropped. Common phrasal verbs tested: look after, look into, call on, send for, carry out, point out, take care of.

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