Understanding the Active Sentence

The original sentence is in the active voice: "The court let the plaintiff argue the motion without interruption."

• Subject: The court
• Verb: let (past tense)
• Object: the plaintiff
• Action: argue the motion without interruption (infinitive phrase without 'to')

Converting to Passive Voice

Sentences with the verb 'let' followed by an object and a base verb are often converted to the passive voice using the structure 'be allowed to' + verb.

1. The object of the active sentence (the plaintiff) becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
2. The active verb 'let' (past tense) changes to the passive form 'was allowed' (past tense).
3. The base verb 'argue' changes to the infinitive form 'to argue'.
4. The rest of the sentence follows: 'the motion without interruption'.
5. The original subject 'The court' can be added using 'by the court', but it is often omitted if unimportant.

Applying these steps results in: "The plaintiff was allowed to argue the motion without interruption."

Analyzing the Options

• Option 1: "The motion was argued by the plaintiff without interruption." - Incorrect. This structure misinterprets the object and the verb 'let'.
• Option 2: "The plaintiff was let to argue the motion without interruption." - Grammatically awkward. While 'let' can sometimes be passive, 'was allowed to' is the standard and preferred passive form for 'let + object + base verb'.
• Option 3: "The plaintiff was allowed to argue the motion without interruption." - Correct. This follows the standard passive transformation rules for the verb 'let'.
• Option 4: "The court was letting the plaintiff argue the motion." - Incorrect. This is the past continuous passive and changes the tense and meaning.

Conclusion

The most accurate and grammatically sound passive voice transformation of the original sentence is provided by Option 3.