SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 17 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.

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Change the following from active to passive: They had been making the staff report discrepancies silently.

(a)The staff had been made to report discrepancies silently.
(b)The staff were made to report discrepancies silently.
(c)Discrepancies had been reported silently by the staff.
(d)The staff had been made report discrepancies silently.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The active uses causative make: make + object + bare infinitive, as in had been making the staff report.

In the passive, the staff becomes the subject and the bare infinitive takes to: made to report.

The past perfect is kept as had been made, and the vague doer they is left out. 'The staff had been made to report discrepancies silently' → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
The staff were made to report discrepancies silently. — were made is simple past. It keeps the to, but drops the past perfect had, which places the making before another past event.
(c)
Discrepancies had been reported silently by the staff. — Discrepancies had been reported is the passive of a different sentence, 'The staff had reported discrepancies'. The causative make, which the stem turns on, disappears.
(d)
The staff had been made report discrepancies silently. — made report leaves out to. The active uses a bare infinitive after make, but the passive needs the to-infinitive: made to report. The tense matches option (a), and the to is what is missing.

Concept

Causative make has one pattern in each voice.

Active: make + object + bare infinitive, as in They made the staff report.
Passive: be made + to-infinitive, as in The staff were made to report.

See, hear and help work the same way: 'They saw him leave' becomes 'He was seen to leave'.

The tense rides on make, and the rest of the sentence, discrepancies silently, carries over unchanged.

A strict conversion keeps the continuous as well: 'The staff had been being made to report discrepancies silently.' That form is rare, and no option prints it.

Option (a) is the one that keeps both the past perfect and the to-infinitive.

Key facts

Causative make, active: make + object + bare infinitive (made them wait).
Causative make, passive: be made + to-infinitive (they were made to wait).
See, hear and help follow the same pattern: he was seen to leave.
A vague agent such as by them can be left out of the passive.

Study next

Passive of let: They let him go becomes He was allowed to goPassive of perfect continuous tenses: has or had been being + past participle

Common traps

Keeping the bare infinitive in the passive (made report) because the active has none
Letting the past perfect slip to simple past (were made to report)
Making discrepancies the subject, which converts a different sentence and loses make

The same rule runs in reverse at 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.14: 'The audience was made to believe' becomes the keyed 'The presenter made the audience believe', and to drops out in the active.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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