SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 17 of 99

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the option that expresses the given sentence in passive voice Someone has taken my secret diary.

(a)My secret diary has to be taken by someone.
(b)My secret diary had been taken by someone.
(c)My secret diary will have been taken by someone.
(d)My secret diary has been taken by someone.

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The active verb is has taken — present perfect.

Present perfect becomes passive as has/have been + past participle. The new subject is 'my secret diary', which is singular, so the auxiliary is has been, giving 'has been taken'.

The agent survives as 'by someone', and the tense has not moved: 'My secret diary has been taken by someone.' — option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
My secret diary has to be taken by someone. — Has to be taken is not a passive of 'has taken' at all. 'Has to' expresses obligation, so the sentence would claim the diary must be taken — a different statement.
(b)
My secret diary had been taken by someone. — Had been taken is the past perfect passive, which answers to an active 'someone had taken'. It pushes the event one step further back than the paper's sentence puts it.
(c)
My secret diary will have been taken by someone. — Will have been taken is the future perfect passive, matching 'someone will have taken'. The paper's sentence reports something already done.

Concept

Voice change keeps the tense of the sentence and changes only the form of be:

simple present → is/are taken
present perfect → has/have been taken
past perfect → had been taken
future perfect → will have been taken

The number of the new subject then picks between 'has' and 'have'. 'My secret diary' is singular, so the passive reads 'has been taken'.

All four options keep the agent as 'by someone' and all four use the participle 'taken', so the item turns on the auxiliary alone. Read those two or three words and ignore the rest of the option.

Key facts

Present perfect active 'has/have + past participle' becomes 'has/have been + past participle' in the passive.
The passive auxiliary agrees with the new subject, not the old one — 'my secret diary' is singular, so has.
'Has to be' expresses obligation rather than perfect aspect, and is never the passive of 'has taken'.

Study next

Passive of the perfect tenses: has been, had been, will have beenPassive of modals: must be done, should have been doneWhen the agent is dropped from a passive sentence

Common traps

Picking had been taken because a passive feels more remote — the tense of the sentence must not move.
Skimming 'has to be taken' as 'has been taken', since the two differ by one small word.

Present perfect is one of the tenses SSC rotates through its voice-change items.

The has/have been pattern is keyed again at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.1 ('The children have made the box'), at 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.11 ('They have built a new bridge') and at 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.4 ('I have booked an apartment').

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.