What are the common traps in Active and Passive Voice questions?

Tense drift: was helped for were helping, has been for had been, would for will. Wrong verb form: was drank, was gave, was broke: the passive always takes the past participle. Missing "be" or "been": The results will announce…, My bicycle has stolen: these are active forms with the wrong subject. Role reversal: The police were arrested by the thief. Changed words: a voice change never turns "this" into "the", "can" into "could" or "a fortnight" into "that fortnight". Questions: By who (should be by whom); Whom was elected (should be Who); Did the plan approved (should be Was the plan…

Start here · the first lesson of Active and Passive Voice

Active and Passive Voice

Grammar: Voice, Narration, Tenses + Rule Bank · for IPMAT Indore, IPMAT Rohtak and JIPMAT

The idea

In the active voice the doer is the subject (The cat drank the milk). In the passive the receiver of the action becomes the subject and the doer moves into a "by" phrase or disappears (The milk was drunk by the cat). Only verbs with an object can be made passive. A change of voice changes nothing else: the tense, the modal, the time words and every other word stay the same. JIPMAT asks this in every paper (2 items a year from 2021 to 2026) in both directions, active to passive and passive to active. Rohtak 2025 also had two.

Textbook vs exam method

Textbook method

Find the object of the active verb; it becomes the new subject.
Keep the tense through the form of be, then add the past participle:

Active	Passive
writes / write	is / are written
wrote	was / were written
is / are writing	is / are being written
was / were writing	was / were being written
has / have written	has / have been written
had written	had been written
will write	will be written
will have written	will have been written
can / must / should write	can / must / should be written
has to write	has / have to be written

Put the doer after "by" in the object form (they → by them, he → by him), or drop it when it is vague (someone, people, they in a general sense).
Make the verb agree with the new subject (The workers have to be paid).

Perfect continuous tenses and the future continuous have no ordinary passive, so exams do not ask for them.

Special patterns

Questions stay questions: Did he write it? → Was it written by him?; Who wrote it? → By whom was it written?; Whom did they elect? → Who was elected?
Commands: Shut the door. → Let the door be shut. Requests or orders with no object: Please sit down. → You are requested to sit down.
Two objects: They gave Riya a bonus → Riya was given a bonus / A bonus was given to Riya.
Phrasal verbs keep their particle: The children are looked after.
Make, see and hear take "to" in the passive: They made him wait → He was made to wait.
"People say that…" → It is said that… or He is said to…
Some verbs take other prepositions: known to, surprised at, pleased with, filled with.

Passive to active: reverse the steps. The noun after "by" becomes the subject, the form of "be" tells you the tense (is being sung → are singing), and the pronoun cases swap (by her → she; I → me).

Exam method

Name the tense of the given verb. in two seconds (was + -ing = past continuous; will + base = simple future).
Eliminate options with the wrong voice. a "passive" option without be + past participle, or an "active" option that still has one.
Eliminate options with the wrong tense. of "be" (the commonest trap: was helped for were helping).
Eliminate role swaps. and changed words (modal, article, time phrase).
The survivor is the answer; check the past participle (drunk, given, broken).