SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 11 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 10 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 correctly expresses the given sentence in passive voice. Why didn’t she bring her son to my house?

(a)Why isn’t her son brought to my house?
(b)Why wasn’t her son brought to my house?
(c)Why wasn’t her son brought by her to my house?
(d)Why isn’t her son brought by you to my house?

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The active verb is didn't bring — did plus the base form, so simple past. Simple past becomes was/were + past participle, which makes the passive auxiliary wasn't, never isn't.

The doer is a definite person, she, so the agent survives as by her. The question word stays in front and the rest inverts around the auxiliary → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Why isn’t her son brought to my house? — Isn't is present tense, and the active sentence is simple past (didn't bring). The agent by her has been dropped as well.
(b)
Why wasn’t her son brought to my house? — The tense is right, but the agent is missing. The active names a definite doer, she, and a named doer is retained in the passive as by her.
(d)
Why isn’t her son brought by you to my house? — By you invents an agent the active never mentions, and isn't puts a past sentence into the present. Two faults in one option.

Concept

A question goes into the passive in three moves.

Keep the question word first. Why, when, where and how stay at the front of the sentence; who becomes by whom.

Match the tense. Did or didn't in the active marks simple past, so the passive auxiliary is was or were. Is or are would be a different sentence.

Retain a definite agent. When the active names a particular doer, the passive keeps it as by plus the object pronoun. Only a vague or unknown doer — people, someone — is left out.

In ordinary English 'Why wasn't her son brought to my house?' is perfectly natural, and speakers drop the agent freely. SSC's transformation exercise rewards the fuller version that keeps the named doer, so retain the agent whenever the active supplies one.

Key facts

Did or didn't in an active sentence marks simple past, whose passive auxiliary is was or were.
In a passive question the wh-word keeps its position at the front of the sentence.
A definite agent is retained as by plus an object pronoun, so she becomes by her.

Study next

Passive voice of wh-questions, including who becoming by whomPassive of negative sentences built on did notWhen the agent is dropped in the passive and when it must be retained

Common traps

Carrying didn't over as isn't because the passive looks like a fresh present-tense question
Dropping the agent because the sentence reads more smoothly without it
Switching the agent to the person being addressed instead of the doer named in the active

SSC drills the question passive and the negative passive separately before combining them, as it does here.

The wh-question form is asked on 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.19 ('Who invited you to this party?' keys to 'By whom were you invited to this party?'), and the negative past form on 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.18 ('Inayat did not greet her.' keys to 'She was not greeted by Inayat.').

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.