SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 9 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 expresses the following sentence in passive voice. He had cleaned the bathroom.

(a)The bathroom had been cleaned by him.
(b)The bathroom has been cleaned by him.
(c)The bathroom has cleaned by him.
(d)The bathroom had cleaned by him.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Rule: passive = the matching form of be + the past participle, with the tense left untouched.

He had cleaned is past perfect active: had + cleaned.
The passive of had + V3 is had been + V3.
So the bathroom had been cleaned, and the doer moves into a by-phrase.

He is a subject pronoun, so as the agent it takes the object form by him. Option (a) carries all three — the tense, the been, and the object pronoun.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
The bathroom has been cleaned by him. — has been cleaned is present perfect. The active sentence is past perfect, and changing the voice must never move the tense.
(c)
The bathroom has cleaned by him. — Missing been, so the verb stays active and the bathroom is left doing the cleaning. It also slides the tense to present perfect.
(d)
The bathroom had cleaned by him. — The tense is right but been is again missing. Had cleaned by him is an active verb, which makes the bathroom the cleaner rather than the thing cleaned.

Concept

A voice change is mechanical once you have named the tense of the active verb.

The object becomes the subject, the verb becomes the matching form of be plus the past participle, and the old subject becomes a by-phrase in the object case.

Each tense has one fixed passive frame. Simple past cleaned becomes was cleaned. Present perfect has cleaned becomes has been cleaned. Past perfect had cleaned becomes had been cleaned.

The auxiliary been is what marks the verb as passive at all, so an option without it is still active however the rest of it reads.

Two of the wrong options differ from the key by that single word been, and the third differs only in its auxiliary tense. Read the options against each other rather than for overall sense.

Key facts

The passive is formed with the appropriate form of be plus the past participle.
Past perfect active had + V3 becomes had been + V3 in the passive.
The agent of a passive verb takes the object pronoun: by him, by her, by them.
Changing the voice never changes the tense of the sentence.

Study next

Passive frames for the continuous tenses, such as is being cleaned and was being cleanedPassives of modal verbs: must be cleaned, should have been cleanedPassives of imperatives, such as Let the bathroom be cleaned

Common traps

Dropping been and accepting had cleaned by him, which is still active
Sliding from past perfect to present perfect because the four options look so alike

SSC gives the active sentence and four passives that differ by a single auxiliary, so the item is decided by tense recognition rather than by meaning.

The same past perfect frame is asked 19 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.7, where The cashier had finished the assigned task on time is keyed The assigned task had been finished by the cashier on time.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.