SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 12 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Change the following from active to passive: They had been negotiating the deal for months.

(a)The deal had been negotiating for months.
(b)The deal had been being negotiated for months.
(c)The deal has been being negotiated for months.
(d)The deal was being negotiated for months.

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
The active verb is had been negotiating: past perfect continuous.

Passive = the same tense of be + past participle.
Past perfect continuous of be: had been being
Add the participle: had been being negotiated

The object the deal becomes the subject and the vague agent They is dropped: "The deal had been being negotiated for months." That is option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The deal had been negotiating for months. — had been negotiating is still an active verb. With no being and no past participle, it says the deal did the negotiating.
(c)
The deal has been being negotiated for months. — has been shifts the tense to present perfect continuous. The original has had, past perfect, so the passive must keep had.
(d)
The deal was being negotiated for months. — was being negotiated is past continuous passive. It drops the perfect aspect that had been carries in the original.

Concept

To change voice, keep the tense and move it onto be, then add the main verb's past participle.

Continuous forms add being: was negotiating → was being negotiated. The perfect continuous stacks both: had been negotiating → had been being negotiated.

The form is grammatical but heavy. Outside a voice-change exercise you could write "The deal had been under negotiation for months." Among these four options, (b) is the one that keeps both had and being.

Key facts

Passive = be in the active verb's tense + past participle.
had been negotiating (active) → had been being negotiated (passive).
was negotiating → was being negotiated (past continuous).

Study next

Passive of the present perfect continuous: has been being + past participlePassive with modal perfects: must have been + past participleDropping a vague agent such as they or someone in the passive

Common traps

Choosing has been being because it looks complete, when had has changed to has
Choosing was being negotiated because it reads more naturally, when it loses the perfect aspect

14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.12 sets the same conversion: The committee had been debating complex amendments becomes amendments that had been being debated, keyed option (b).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Active and passive voice — all 132 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.