SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 17 of 97

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.

Select the option that expresses the given sentence in passive voice. The teenager delivered the speech.

(a)The speech has been delivered by the teenager.
(b)The speech was delivered by the teenager.
(c)The speech was being delivered by the teenager.
(d)The speech is delivered by the teenager.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Fix the tense before you touch the word order.

Rule: simple past active becomes was or were plus the past participle.

The active verb is delivered, a simple past. The object the speech becomes the new subject, and it is singular, so the auxiliary is was.

was + delivered gives The speech was delivered by the teenager → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The speech has been delivered by the teenager. — has been delivered is the present perfect passive. It answers the active "The teenager has delivered the speech", not the simple past "delivered".
(c)
The speech was being delivered by the teenager. — was being delivered is the past continuous passive, which needs an active "was delivering". The original reports a completed act, not one in progress.
(d)
The speech is delivered by the teenager. — is delivered is the simple present passive, matching "The teenager delivers the speech". It moves the sentence out of the past altogether.

Concept

Converting to the passive is three mechanical moves. The object becomes the subject, the verb becomes a form of be in the same tense plus the past participle, and the old subject follows by.

The move that decides SSC's items is the second one. All four options here are grammatical English sentences, and they differ only in the tense of be — was, was being, has been, is.

So the whole question reduces to reading the tense of the active verb. Delivered is simple past, and the simple past passive is was or were plus the past participle.

The auxiliary agrees with the new subject, not with the old one. "The speech" is singular, so it is was delivered. Had the sentence read "the speeches", it would be "were delivered".

Key facts

Simple past active becomes was or were plus the past participle.
The auxiliary agrees with the new subject, which is the original object.
Present perfect active (has delivered) becomes has been delivered.
Past continuous active (was delivering) becomes was being delivered.

Study next

Passives of the perfect tenses: has been, had been, will have beenPassives of the continuous tenses, and why was being needs an active was ...ingPassives of verbs with two objects, where either object can head the passive sentence

Common traps

Choosing the present perfect because has been delivered sounds more formal.
Letting the agent the teenager fix the number of the auxiliary instead of the new subject.
Picking the tense that sounds natural rather than the one the active verb prints.

SSC gives one active sentence and four passives that differ only in tense, so the item is a tense match rather than a word-order exercise.

The same simple-past conversion is keyed at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8, where "Martha made pancakes yesterday" becomes "Pancakes were made by Martha yesterday".

It is keyed again at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.17, where "The baker baked the cake" becomes "The cake was baked by the baker". Within this same shift the present-perfect version sits at English Q.4.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.