Converting Passive Voice to Active Voice

The question asks us to find the correct active form of the given sentence: "The window had been broken by the boy." This involves changing a sentence from the passive voice to the active voice while maintaining the original tense.

Understanding the Original Sentence

The original sentence, "The window had been broken by the boy," is in the Past Perfect Passive tense. Let's break it down:

• Subject (Passive): The window (the receiver of the action)
• Verb Phrase: had been broken (Past Perfect Passive form: 'had' + 'been' + past participle)
• Agent: by the boy (the doer of the action, introduced by 'by')

Rules for Active Voice Conversion (Past Perfect Tense)

To convert a Past Perfect Passive sentence to its active voice equivalent, follow these steps:

1. Identify the agent in the passive sentence (the person or thing performing the action, usually after "by"). This agent becomes the subject of the active sentence. In our case, the agent is "the boy".
2. Identify the subject of the passive sentence. This subject becomes the direct object of the active sentence. Here, "the window" becomes the object.
3. Change the verb phrase. The Past Perfect Passive ("had been" + past participle) changes to the Past Perfect Active ("had" + past participle). The past participle remains the same. So, "had been broken" becomes "had broken".

Applying the Rules

Let's apply these rules to the sentence:

• Passive Subject: The window
• Passive Verb: had been broken
• Passive Agent: the boy

Converting to Active Voice:

• New Subject (from Agent): The boy
• Active Verb (Past Perfect): had broken
• New Object (from Passive Subject): the window

Combining these gives us the active sentence: "The boy had broken the window."

Analyzing the Options

Now let's look at the provided options and see which one matches our converted sentence and maintains the Past Perfect Tense:

• Option 1: The boy has broken the window. - This is in the Present Perfect tense, not Past Perfect. Incorrect.
• Option 2: The boy is breaking the window. - This is in the Present Continuous tense. Incorrect.
• Option 3: The boy broke the window. - This is in the Simple Past tense. Incorrect.
• Option 4: The boy had broken the window. - This correctly uses the Past Perfect Tense ("had broken") and follows the active voice structure (Subject + Verb + Object). This matches our derived active form.

Conclusion

The correct active form of the sentence "The window had been broken by the boy" is "The boy had broken the window," which corresponds to the Past Perfect Tense.