Understanding Passive Voice Transformation

The question asks us to convert a sentence from active voice to passive voice. Specifically, we need to rephrase the statement "Mahesh and his team were helping the fire and rescue team" in the passive voice to tell our parents.

What is Passive Voice?

In the active voice, the subject performs the action. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action, and the focus is on the action itself rather than who is performing it. The structure typically involves a form of the verb 'to be' followed by the past participle of the main verb, and often uses 'by' to introduce the agent (the one performing the action).

Converting Past Continuous Active to Passive

The original sentence "Mahesh and his team were helping the fire and rescue team" is in the past continuous active voice. The structure is:

\(\text{Subject} + \text{was/were} + \text{Verb-ing} + \text{Object}\)

To convert a past continuous active sentence to passive voice, we use the following structure:

\(\text{Object} + \text{was/were} + \text{being} + \text{Past Participle of Verb} + (\text{by} + \text{Subject})\)

Let's apply this to the sentence "Mahesh and his team were helping the fire and rescue team":

• The object of the active sentence is "the fire and rescue team". This becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
• The verb tense is past continuous ('were helping').
• The passive structure for past continuous uses 'was being' or 'were being'. Since "the fire and rescue team" is treated as a singular unit, we use 'was being'.
• The past participle of 'helping' is 'helped'.
• The original subject "Mahesh and his team" becomes the agent, introduced by 'by'.

Combining these elements, the passive sentence is: "The fire and rescue team was being helped by Mahesh and his team."

Analyzing the Options

Let's examine each option based on the correct passive structure for the past continuous tense:

1. The fire and rescue team helped by Mahesh and his team.

   This structure is incorrect for the past continuous passive. It is missing the auxiliary verb 'was/were' and 'being'. It sounds like a reduced relative clause or an incomplete passive form.

2. The fire and rescue team was being helped by Mahesh and his team.

   This option perfectly matches the correct structure for the past continuous passive voice: Subject (The fire and rescue team) + was being + Past Participle (helped) + by + Agent (Mahesh and his team).

3. The fire and rescue team being help by Mahesh and his team.

   This option is grammatically incorrect. "being help" should be "being helped" (past participle), and it lacks the necessary auxiliary verb ('was' or 'were') before 'being' to form a complete sentence in this tense.

4. Mahesh and his team were been helping the fire and rescue team.

   This option is not in the passive voice at all. It uses the active voice structure, and even that structure ("were been helping") is grammatically incorrect for any standard English tense. The correct active form is "were helping".

Based on the analysis, only Option 2 correctly transforms the sentence into the passive voice while maintaining the original tense (past continuous).

Therefore, the correct way to tell your parents, using the passive voice, is: "The fire and rescue team was being helped by Mahesh and his team."

Revision Table: Active vs. Passive Voice

Additional Information on Passive Voice Usage

The passive voice is often used when:

• The doer of the action is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from the context.
• You want to emphasize the action or the object receiving the action.
• You are writing in a formal, scientific, or objective style.

In this specific case, using the passive voice ("The fire and rescue team was being helped...") shifts the focus from who was helping (Mahesh and his team) to the fact that the fire and rescue team was receiving help. This might be useful if you want to highlight the difficult situation of the fire and rescue team rather than the efforts of Mahesh's team.