Convert the sentence provided below from its passive voice structure to an active voice structure: The instructions have been misunderstood by many candidates.

Correct — B. The passive verb is have been misunderstood: have been + past participle, the present perfect passive.

Converting to active keeps the tense:
the agent, many candidates → subject
have been misunderstood → have misunderstood
the instructions → object

Many candidates have misunderstood the instructions — option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Many candidates misunderstood the instructions. — misunderstood on its own is the simple past. The passive has have been, so the active must keep have: present perfect, not simple past.
• (c)
  The instructions misunderstood the candidates. — The instructions misunderstood the candidates reverses the roles. The candidates did the misunderstanding, so in the active they must be the subject, not the object.
• (d)
  The candidates misunderstand the instructions. — misunderstand is the simple present, and The candidates drops many. The tense changes, and so does who is said to have misunderstood.

A voice change keeps the tense. Only the pattern changes:

present perfect passive: have/has been + past participle
present perfect active: have/has + past participle

The agent after by becomes the subject, and the old subject becomes the object. Have or has then agrees with the new subject: many candidates is plural, so the verb stays have.

Key facts

• Present perfect passive, have/has been + past participle, becomes have/has + past participle in the active.
• The agent after by becomes the subject of the active sentence.
• Has or have agrees with the new subject: the minister has ordered, many candidates have misunderstood.

Common traps

• Dropping have and choosing the simple past, misunderstood
• Keeping the instructions as subject and reversing who did what

No directly related past PYQ was found.