Select the option that expresses the given sentence in passive voice. Martha made pancakes yesterday.

Correct — B. Fix the tense first. made is simple past, so the passive must be was or were plus the past participle — not a perfect and not a continuous form.

Then fix the number. The new subject is pancakes, which is plural, so the verb is were, not was.

were made by Martha yesterday keeps the tense and agrees with the new subject → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Pancakes had been made by Martha yesterday. — had been made is past perfect passive, and it answers the active sentence Martha had made pancakes. The original is simple past, so the tense has been shifted.
• (c)
  Pancakes were being made by Martha yesterday. — were being made is past continuous passive, matching Martha was making pancakes. The original reports a completed action, not one in progress.
• (d)
  Pancakes was made by Martha yesterday. — The tense is right and the agreement is not. The new subject pancakes is plural, so the auxiliary must be were; was would need a singular subject.

The transformation has four moves and they can be made in a fixed order.

The object becomes the subject: pancakes moves to the front. The verb becomes be plus the past participle, with be carried into the tense the active verb had: simple past made becomes were made.

The old subject becomes the by-agent: by Martha. Adverbials such as yesterday stay where they are and change nothing.

The move that decides this item is the second one, because be is the only part that carries both tense and number, and the number it must agree with is the new subject's, not the old one's.

Key facts

• Simple past active becomes was or were plus the past participle in the passive.
• The passive auxiliary agrees in number with the new subject, which was the object of the active sentence.
• Past perfect active had made becomes had been made, and past continuous was making becomes was being made.
• Time adverbials such as yesterday are unchanged by the transformation.

Common traps

• Keeping was because the active subject Martha is singular
• Reaching for a perfect or continuous passive because it sounds more formal than the original
• Moving or dropping yesterday during the rewrite

No directly related past PYQ was found.