Difference Between Passive Voice to Active Voice — Exercise 7 (Tenses, Modals, Infinitive, Participle, Gerund, All English Grammar Included) Enrich Your Vocabulary
This practice set trains you to convert active sentences into correct passive forms across a wide range of tenses and modals (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect-continuous, modals + perfect, infinitive, participle, gerund, passive with causatives, and more). Each item gives an active sentence followed by four passive options — only one is correct. Every question includes the main verb (POS & short word meaning), key POS items, and a clear explanation for why the correct answer is right and why each distractor is wrong. No verbs or questions repeat within this set — designed for thorough practice and strong English coverage of “passive voice,” “active to passive,” and tense-conversion queries.
English Grammar Definition: Passive Voice (Be + verb 3rd form)
- Form: be + verb 3rd form.
- Definition: Passive voice = Object of the active + appropriate form of be + past participle (+ by + agent) (agent optional).
- When to use: when the action or object is more important than the actor, or actor unknown/irrelevant.
- Form basics:
- Simple present passive: is/are + V3
- Simple past passive: was/were + V3
- Present perfect passive: has/have been + V3
- Future passive: will be + V3 or will have been + V3 (future perfect passive)
- Modal passive: modal + be + V3 or modal + have been + V3 (modal perfect passive)
- Passive of continuous forms: is/are being + V3; was/were being + V3; will be being + V3 (rare)
- Conversion tip: Identify the object of the active sentence — that becomes the subject of the passive. Match tense and auxiliary forms; preserve modals (can/will/must/should) using be or have been as needed.
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Quiz Instructions
- Read each question and choose the best answer out of four given options.
- On top, header section of the quiz, you will see the “title of the quiz,’ ‘spending-time,’ ‘value of question in points,’ and ‘number of questions.”
- Below on footer, you will see Full Screen mode. As the name suggests, it covers the whole screen. It will save a lot of your time attempting the quiz.
- You can zoom the images given in the questions.
- After submitting the quiz, you can see your score and compare with other users.
- The Full Leaderboard link will take you to a page, where you can see all users attempts.
- Below the quiz box, there are explanation of each options. You can study and try again.
- Best of Luck!
Quiz Question, Answer and Explanation
Note: Do remember in the quiz box above, the questions and options will shuffle, so they won’t have the same sequence like 1, 2, 3, or A, B, C as below.
1. Passive: The codebase will have been refactored by the end of quarter by the engineering team.
A) The engineering team will have refactored the codebase by the end of quarter.
B) The engineering team will refactor the codebase by the end of quarter.
C) The codebase will have refactored the engineering team by the end of quarter.
D) The engineering team is refactoring the codebase by the end of quarter.
Verb: refactor — to restructure code without changing behavior.
POS notes: will have been refactored = future perfect passive.
A (Correct): Future perfect passive → active future perfect: will have refactored. This expresses that the refactor will be completed before the quarter ends.
B (Why wrong): Simple future (will refactor) doesn’t stress completion before a reference point.
C (Why wrong): Reverses roles.
D (Why wrong): Present continuous or future arrangement phrasing — not the same tense.
2. Passive: The patient was being monitored by staff overnight.
A) Staff were monitoring the patient overnight.
B) Staff monitored the patient overnight.
C) The patient was monitoring staff overnight.
D) Staff have monitored the patient overnight.
Verb: monitor — to watch or check regularly.
POS notes: was being monitored = past continuous passive.
A (Correct): Past continuous passive → past continuous active: were monitoring. It keeps the idea of ongoing observation during the night.
B (Why wrong): Simple past could be used, but loses the “in progress” nuance.
C (Why wrong): Reverses roles.
D (Why wrong): Present perfect indicates completion; timing and meaning change.
3. Passive: A new dashboard has been designed by UI engineers for the leadership team.
A) UI engineers have designed a new dashboard for the leadership team.
B) UI engineers designed a new dashboard for the leadership team.
C) A new dashboard has designed UI engineers for the leadership team.
D) UI engineers will have designed a new dashboard for the leadership team.
Verb: design — to plan the appearance or functionality.
POS notes: has been designed = present perfect passive.
A (Correct): Present perfect passive → present perfect active: have designed. Matches recent completion and present relevance.
B (Why wrong): Simple past is less precise about present relevance.
C (Why wrong): Wrong grammar and order.
D (Why wrong): Future perfect — different time reference.
4. Passive: The marketing budget was being reviewed by finance during the meeting.
A) Finance was reviewing the marketing budget during the meeting.
B) Finance reviewed the marketing budget during the meeting.
C) The marketing budget was reviewing finance during the meeting.
D) Finance will have reviewed the marketing budget during the meeting.
Verb: review — to examine carefully.
POS notes: was being reviewed = past continuous passive.
A (Correct): Past continuous passive → active past continuous: was reviewing. Preserves the idea of action happening during that meeting.
B (Why wrong): Simple past removes the continuous, in-progress sense.
C (Why wrong): Reverses roles.
D (Why wrong): Future perfect — wrong tense.
5. Passive: The customer’s complaint had been escalated to the director before the weekend.
A) Someone had escalated the customer’s complaint to the director before the weekend.
B) The director had escalated the customer’s complaint before the weekend.
C) The customer’s complaint had escalated the director before the weekend.
D) Someone escalated the customer’s complaint to the director before the weekend.
Verb: escalate — to raise the level of attention for an issue.
POS notes: had been escalated = past perfect passive; before the weekend (time).
A (Correct): Past perfect passive → active past perfect: had escalated. The agent is unspecified, so someone works as the subject. It maintains that escalation happened before the weekend.
B (Why wrong): Suggests the director did the escalating (unlikely), and also reverses the agent/object relationship.
C (Why wrong): Reverses roles.
D (Why wrong): Simple past — changes the sequence; it doesn’t make it clear the action was completed before another past reference.
6. Passive: The award will be presented by the chair at the ceremony.
A) The chair will present the award at the ceremony.
B) The chair will be presenting the award at the ceremony.
C) The award will present the chair at the ceremony.
D) The chair has presented the award at the ceremony.
Verb: present — to give or hand over formally.
POS notes: will be presented = future simple passive.
A (Correct): Moves agent to subject and uses simple future will present. Maintains exact meaning.
B (Why wrong): Future continuous implies a longer action; it changes nuance. Not incorrect grammatically, but not the exact conversion.
C (Why wrong): Reverses roles.
D (Why wrong): Present perfect — indicates it’s already happened.
7. Passive: All invoices have been validated by accounting for accuracy.
A) Accounting has validated all invoices for accuracy.
B) Accounting validated all invoices for accuracy.
C) All invoices have validated accounting for accuracy.
D) Accounting will validate all invoices for accuracy.
Verb: validate — to check correctness.
POS notes: have been validated = present perfect passive.
A (Correct): Converts present perfect passive to active present perfect: has validated. Keeps the up-to-now relevance.
B (Why wrong): Simple past — possible but slightly different nuance.
C (Why wrong): Reverses roles.
D (Why wrong): Future tense — wrong.
8. Passive: The meeting minutes were being drafted by the secretary at 11am.
A) The secretary was drafting the meeting minutes at 11am.
B) The secretary drafted the meeting minutes at 11am.
C) The meeting minutes were drafting the secretary at 11am.
D) The secretary had drafted the meeting minutes at 11am.
Verb: draft — to write a preliminary version of a document.
POS notes: were being drafted = past continuous passive.
A (Correct): Active past continuous form matches the passive ongoing action at that time.
B (Why wrong): Simple past loses the sense that drafting was happening specifically at 11am.
C (Why wrong): Wrong order.
D (Why wrong): Past perfect implies drafting was completed before another past event — different meaning.
9. Passive: The warning label must be affixed to the package by the sender.
A) The sender must affix the warning label to the package.
B) The sender must be affixing the warning label to the package.
C) The warning label must affix the sender to the package.
D) The sender must have affixed the warning label to the package.
Verb: affix — to attach something.
POS notes: must be affixed = modal passive (obligation).
A (Correct): Modal passive must + be + V3 → active must + base verb with the sender as subject. Keeps obligation.
B (Why wrong): Progressive modal changes nuance — implies continuous action (not a one-time obligation).
C (Why wrong): Illogical reversal.
D (Why wrong): Modal perfect (must have affixed) indicates a deduction about the past, not an instruction.
10. Passive: The roadmap was approved unanimously by the steering committee.
A) The steering committee approved the roadmap unanimously.
B) The steering committee was approving the roadmap unanimously.
C) The roadmap approved the steering committee unanimously.
D) The steering committee has approved the roadmap unanimously.
Verb: approve — to accept officially.
POS notes: was approved = past simple passive; unanimously (manner).
A (Correct): Direct past simple active conversion. Keeps unanimously.
B (Why wrong): Past continuous changes the sense to an ongoing process instead of a completed decision.
C (Why wrong): Reverses roles.
D (Why wrong): Present perfect suggests a recent action relevant now — slightly different tense.
