Select the correct active form. "Was the novel written by her?"
Active Voice Conversion Explained
The task is to identify the correct active voice equivalent for the given passive voice sentence.
Understanding the Passive Sentence
The original sentence is: "Was the novel written by her?"
- This sentence is in the Past Simple Passive voice. The structure is: Auxiliary Verb (Was) + Subject (the novel) + Past Participle (written) + Preposition (by) + Agent (her).
- It asks whether the action of writing the novel was performed by 'her'.
Key Steps for Passive to Active Conversion
To convert a passive sentence to its active form, follow these steps:
- Identify the Agent: The agent is the performer of the action, usually found after the preposition 'by' in the passive sentence. In this case, the agent is "her".
- Make the Agent the Subject: The agent ("her") becomes the subject of the active sentence. So, "her" changes to "she".
- Change the Verb: The verb needs to be changed from passive form (Auxiliary + Past Participle) to the active form. For the Past Simple tense, the passive form "Was written" changes to the active form "did write". The auxiliary "Did" is used for past simple questions, followed by the base form of the verb ("write").
- Make the Passive Subject the Object: The subject of the passive sentence ("the novel") becomes the direct object of the active sentence.
- Form the Active Question: Assemble the parts into a question using the active voice structure: Auxiliary (Did) + Subject (she) + Base Verb (write) + Object (the novel)?
Applying the Conversion Process
Let's apply these steps to the sentence:
- Passive: Was the novel written by her?
- Agent: her
- New Subject: she
- Verb Change: Was written -> did write
- Passive Subject: the novel
- New Object: the novel
- Active Question: Did she write the novel?
Analyzing the Options
We can compare the resulting active sentence with the given options:
| Option Number | Sentence | Voice and Tense | Analysis |
| 1 | Was she writing the novel? | Past Continuous Active | Incorrect tense. The original passive was Past Simple. |
| 2 | Is she writing the novel? | Present Continuous Active | Incorrect tense and voice. Should be Past Simple Active. |
| 3 | Did she write the novel? | Past Simple Active | Matches the correct conversion. Correct tense and voice. |
| 4 | Has she written the novel? | Present Perfect Active | Incorrect tense. The original passive was Past Simple. |
The sentence "Did she write the novel?" correctly transforms the passive "Was the novel written by her?" into the active voice while maintaining the Past Simple tense.
Similar Questions
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Important Questions from Active & Passive Voice
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