Select the option that expresses the given sentence in passive voice. People know Stellenbosch for its greenery and delicious street foods.
- (a)Stellenbosch was known to people for its greenery and delicious street foods.
- (b)Stellenbosch have been known to people for its greenery and delicious street foods.
- (c)Stellenbosch had been known to people for its greenery and delicious street foods.
- (d)Stellenbosch is known to people for its greenery and delicious street foods.
Answer
Why
Correct — D. The active verb is know, a simple present. Changing the voice never changes the tense, so the passive has to stay simple present: is or are plus the past participle.
Know becomes known, the object Stellenbosch moves into the subject slot, and the old subject people becomes the agent.
Stellenbosch is singular, so the auxiliary is is, not are: Stellenbosch is known to people, which is option (d).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Stellenbosch was known to people for its greenery and delicious street foods. — was known is simple past. The active sentence says People know, in the present, and a voice change rewrites the voice and not the time.
- (b)Stellenbosch have been known to people for its greenery and delicious street foods. — have been known is present perfect, and it also breaks agreement — the singular subject Stellenbosch would need has, not have.
- (c)Stellenbosch had been known to people for its greenery and delicious street foods. — had been known is past perfect, which marks one past event as earlier than another past event. There is no second past event here for it to precede.
Concept
Passive conversion is three moves and one prohibition.
Move the object into the subject slot, put the main verb into its past participle, and demote the old subject to an agent phrase. The prohibition: the tense stays exactly as it was.
The auxiliary carries that tense, and it must also agree with the new subject. A simple present with a singular subject gives is plus the participle, which is why is known is the form this sentence needs.
The key writes known to people rather than by people. Know is one of the verbs whose passive normally takes to — known to the police, known to millions — so SSC has printed the idiomatic form rather than the mechanical by-phrase.
Key facts
- The passive of a simple present verb is is or are plus the past participle.
- A change of voice never changes the tense of the sentence.
- The past participle of know is known.
- With known, English idiom prefers known to somebody over known by somebody.
Study next
Common traps
- Defaulting to was because passive sentences somehow feel past.
- Making the auxiliary agree with people instead of with the new subject Stellenbosch.
Voice change is a standing SSC format, and here the distractors are the same sentence in other tenses, so the tense of the active verb is the whole decision.
Simple-present actives are converted on 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.10 and 24 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8. This shift sets a future active at English Q.10.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.