Select the option that expresses the given sentence in active voice. The contract was grabbed by the biggest telecom company in India.
- (a)The biggest telecom company in India grabs the contract.
- (b)The biggest telecom company in India grabbed the contract.
- (c)The biggest telecom company in India will grab the contract.
- (d)The biggest telecom company in India has grabbed the contract.
Answer
Why
Correct — B. Changing the voice must not change the tense.
was grabbed is 'was' plus a past participle, which is the simple past passive. Its active counterpart is the simple past: grabbed.
Then move the parts. The agent in 'by the biggest telecom company in India' becomes the subject, and the passive subject 'the contract' becomes the object.
That gives 'The biggest telecom company in India grabbed the contract' — option (b). The other three are well-formed English sentences sitting in the wrong tense.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)The biggest telecom company in India grabs the contract. — grabs is the simple present. It is the active of 'is grabbed', not of 'was grabbed', so the sentence is grammatical but reports the wrong time.
- (c)The biggest telecom company in India will grab the contract. — will grab is the simple future, the active of 'will be grabbed'. Nothing in the passive sentence points forward in time.
- (d)The biggest telecom company in India has grabbed the contract. — has grabbed is the present perfect, which converts from 'has been grabbed'. The original auxiliary is 'was', so the perfect is one step too far.
Concept
Voice conversion is a mechanical swap, and the one thing that must survive it is the tense.
The passive auxiliary announces the tense outright: is/are grabbed is present, was/were grabbed is past, will be grabbed is future, has/have been grabbed is present perfect, was being grabbed is past continuous.
After that the moves are fixed. The by-agent becomes the subject, the passive subject becomes the object, and the past participle becomes the finite verb in the tense the auxiliary named.
All four options keep the agent phrase word for word, so the item turns entirely on the verb and nothing is gained by reading the rest of each option closely.
Key facts
- was/were + past participle is the simple past passive, and its active is the simple past.
- has/have been + past participle is the present perfect passive, and its active is the present perfect.
- The noun phrase after by is the agent, and it becomes the subject of the active sentence.
- Converting voice changes the arrangement of subject, verb and object, never the tense.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing the version that reads most naturally instead of the one that matches the passive auxiliary.
- Treating 'has grabbed' as close enough to a past tense, when it converts from 'has been grabbed'.
This shift also runs a voice item at English Q.18, where the passive question 'By whom was grammar taught to you?' is keyed as 'Who taught you grammar?'.
The same simple-past swap is keyed on 09 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.11 ('The painting was admired by art enthusiasts from around the world.') and on 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.14 ('The car was repaired by the mechanic.').
A modal version appears on 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.1 ('The homework must be done by you.').
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.