SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 2 of 98

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 active voice. By whom were you injured?

(a)Who had injured you?
(b)Who had been injuring you?
(c)Who has injured you?
(d)Who injured you?

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The given verb is were injured — were plus the past participle, which is the simple past passive.

Changing voice never changes tense, so the active verb must be the simple past: injured.

The agent sits in by whom, so the active subject is Who, and a wh-subject question takes no added did.

Who injured you? — option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Who had injured you? — Had injured is past perfect. Its passive would be had been injured, not were injured, so this changes the tense the question gives you.
(b)
Who had been injuring you? — Had been injuring is past perfect continuous. Nothing in were injured is either perfect or continuous, and that tense has no ordinary passive of this shape.
(c)
Who has injured you? — Has injured is present perfect. It would answer By whom have you been injured?, which is a different sentence from the one printed.

Concept

Voice change moves the agent to the front and rebuilds the verb, but it keeps the tense. Learn the pairs and this item becomes mechanical.

is/am/are + V3 is the present simple passive. was/were + V3 is the past simple passive. has/have been + V3 is present perfect, had been + V3 is past perfect.

In a passive question opening By whom, the agent becomes the subject Who, and because Who is the subject the auxiliary do or did is not added.

All four options are grammatical English questions, and all four keep the same words. Only the tense differs, so reading them aloud and choosing the one that sounds natural decides nothing here.

Key facts

was or were plus a past participle is the simple past passive, and its active is the simple past.
A passive question beginning By whom becomes an active question beginning Who.
Who as the subject of a question takes no do, does or did: Who injured you?, not Who did injure you?

Study next

Voice change in interrogatives, both wh-questions and yes or no questionsThe full passive tense table, present simple through past perfectPassives with modals, as in must be done becoming must do

Common traps

Adding a perfect tense because were looks like an auxiliary that needs completing
Writing Who did injure you? and adding an auxiliary the subject question does not take
Losing the question mark and turning the sentence into a statement

Here all four options repeat the same words and vary only the tense, so tense-matching is the whole task.

The closest twin is 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.18: By whom was grammar taught to you?, keyed to Who taught you grammar? — but there the wrong options also shuffle the word order and swap the subject, so read them rather than pattern-match.

English Q.17 of this shift turns a passive question active as well (Were the plants being grafted by the gardener?), and 9 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.1 does it with a modal (The homework must be done by you).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.