Active and Passive Voice MCQ - Practice Questions with Answers

Statements 1 and 2 describe the two essential transformation steps. The active object ("a letter" in "Sita writes a letter") moves to subject position to give "A letter is written by Sita", and a form of 'be' (is/was/were/has been) is added before the past participle. Statement 3 is the trap: the original subject is not always dropped — it usually reappears as the agent inside a 'by' phrase, especially when naming the doer is important. Only when the doer is unknown, generic, or unimportant do teachers drop it ("The window was broken."). Option A is wrong because it accepts the misleading 'always dropped' claim. Option C wrongly rejects the well-attested object-to-subject movement. Option D is wrong because it endorses statement 3 as an exceptionless rule.

The pedagogically correct sequence begins with naming the parts of the active sentence so the learner has a clear referent. Step 2 — identify subject, verb, object and underline them on the board — comes first. Then step 4 — move the object to the front to become the new subject — gives a visible structural change the learner can see. Step 1 — insert the appropriate 'be' form matching tense and number — comes next, because the new subject must be in place before its agreement-controlling 'be' can be chosen. Finally step 3 — handle the original doer, either as a 'by + agent' phrase or by dropping it — finishes the sentence. So the correct order is (2), (4), (1), (3) — option B. Option A starts with adding 'be' before identifying any parts. Option C reverses the entire process. Option D inserts 'be' before moving the object, which makes agreement choice premature.

In an active voice sentence the subject is the doer of the action and the verb expresses what the subject does to the object — for example, 'Sita writes a letter.' The standard order is Subject + Verb + Object. This is the construction that primary learners meet first because it mirrors natural spoken English. Option A reverses subject-verb order, which is not the defining trait of active voice; that pattern occurs in questions or imperatives. Option C describes the structure of a passive voice sentence where the object becomes the grammatical subject and the verb 'be' is used. Option D also describes a passive construction with an agentless 'by' phrase. Only Option B captures the doer–action–receiver flow that defines active voice for a Class I-V audience.

Identify each sentence by its verb pattern. Sentence 1, "The cake was eaten by the children." has the pattern 'was + past participle (eaten)' with a 'by' phrase — clearly passive. Sentence 2, "Ramesh is reading a story." has 'is + reading (present participle)' — present continuous active, NOT passive. Sentence 3, "The letters have been posted." has 'have been + past participle (posted)' — present perfect passive. Sentence 4, "Songs are sung at the morning assembly." has 'are + sung (past participle)' — simple present passive. So three sentences (1, 3, 4) are passive and only sentence 2 is active. The correct answer is three, matching option A. The trap is sentence 2, which uses 'is reading' (V-ing), often confused by primary learners with passive 'is + V-ed' patterns.

Each English tense has a fixed 'be' form in its passive. (a) Simple Present passive uses 'is/am/are' + past participle, e.g. "Letters are written." — match (2). (b) Simple Past passive uses 'was/were' + past participle, e.g. "The drum was played." — match (4). (c) Present Continuous passive uses 'is being/are being' + past participle, e.g. "The story is being read." — match (3). (d) Present Perfect passive uses 'has been/have been' + past participle, e.g. "The work has been finished." — match (1). The correct mapping is (a)-(2), (b)-(4), (c)-(3), (d)-(1). Mismatching these tense-be pairs is the single most common error in primary classroom worksheets and the trap the other options set up.