Convert the sentence provided below from its passive voice structure to an active voice structure: The package is delivered to the office every morning.
- (a)The office delivers the package every morning.
- (b)Someone delivers the package to the office every morning.
- (c)The office has delivered the package every morning.
- (d)The package delivers itself to the office every morning.
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The verb is delivered is simple present passive, and the sentence names no doer: there is no by-phrase.
An active sentence needs a subject, so an indefinite one stands in, Someone. The tense stays simple present, delivers, and the package becomes the object.
To the office and every morning carry over unchanged. That gives "Someone delivers the package to the office every morning" — option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)The office delivers the package every morning. — The office delivers turns the destination into the doer. In the passive the office only receives the package, and this version also drops to.
- (c)The office has delivered the package every morning. — has delivered changes the simple present into the present perfect, and it makes the office the doer. Both the tense and the roles are wrong.
- (d)The package delivers itself to the office every morning. — delivers itself makes the package its own doer. In the passive the package is what gets delivered, not what does the delivering.
Concept
Passive to active reverses one move: the doer returns to the subject slot, and the passive subject becomes the object.
When the passive names no doer, the active takes an indefinite subject — someone, somebody, people or they — rather than a specific agent the sentence never mentioned.
The form of be sets the active tense: is delivered → delivers, was delivered → delivered.
The office does appear in the sentence, but as the destination after to, not as the deliverer. Options (a) and (c) both promote it to the doer.
Key facts
- Simple present passive: is/are + past participle (is delivered).
- Its active counterpart is the simple present: delivers.
- A passive with no by-phrase takes an indefinite subject in the active: someone, people, they.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking the office as the doer because it is already in the sentence
- Changing is delivered to has delivered, when the active keeps the simple present
The reverse move is keyed at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.17: Someone has taken my secret diary becomes My secret diary has been taken by someone.
18 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.14 keys the same fix as this item: an agentless passive turned active with Someone as the subject.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.