Understanding Active and Passive Voice Transformation

The question asks us to convert a sentence from active voice to passive voice. The original sentence is: "The Smiths have put up a huge Christmas tree."

In active voice, the subject performs the action. In passive voice, the subject receives the action, and the performer of the action is often mentioned using 'by'.

Identifying Tense in the Active Sentence

Let's analyze the given active sentence: "The Smiths have put up a huge Christmas tree."

• Subject: The Smiths
• Verb: have put up
• Object: a huge Christmas tree

The verb "have put up" is in the present perfect tense. To change a sentence to passive voice, we must maintain the original tense.

Converting Present Perfect Active to Passive Voice

The structure for converting a sentence from present perfect active voice to passive voice is as follows:

Active: Subject + have/has + past participle of main verb + Object

Passive: Object + have/has been + past participle of main verb + by + Subject

Applying the Conversion to the Sentence

Using the structure above, let's convert "The Smiths have put up a huge Christmas tree."

• Original Object becomes the new Subject: "A huge Christmas tree"
• Since "A huge Christmas tree" is singular, we use "has been".
• The past participle of the main verb "put up" is "put up".
• The original Subject becomes the agent introduced by "by": "by the Smiths".

Combining these parts, the passive voice sentence is: "A huge Christmas tree has been put up by the Smiths."

Analyzing the Options for Passive Voice

Let's examine the given options to find the correct passive voice transformation:

1. A huge Christmas tree is being put up by the Smiths.
2. A huge Christmas tree has been put up by the Smiths.
3. A huge Christmas tree is put up by the Smiths.
4. A huge Christmas tree was put up by the Smiths.

Explanation of Options:

• Option 1 ("is being put up") is in the present continuous passive tense. This does not match the original present perfect tense.
• Option 2 ("has been put up") is in the present perfect passive tense. This correctly matches the original present perfect tense and follows the passive voice structure.
• Option 3 ("is put up") is in the simple present passive tense. This does not match the original present perfect tense.
• Option 4 ("was put up") is in the simple past passive tense. This does not match the original present perfect tense.

Based on our analysis, Option 2 is the correct passive voice conversion of the given sentence.

Revision Table: Active vs. Passive Voice Tenses

Understanding how different tenses change in passive voice is crucial. Here is a table summarizing common transformations:

Additional Information on Passive Voice

The passive voice is used for various reasons:

• When the doer of the action (the agent) is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from the context.
• When the focus is on the action itself or the object receiving the action, rather than the doer.
• In formal writing, scientific reports, and news headlines.

Example: "The experiment was conducted carefully." (Focus is on the experiment and how it was done, not who did it).

In the original sentence, "The Smiths have put up a huge Christmas tree," the focus is on what the Smiths did. In the passive version, "A huge Christmas tree has been put up by the Smiths," the focus shifts to the Christmas tree and its state of being put up.

Remember that not all verbs can be used in the passive voice. Intransitive verbs (verbs that do not take an object, e.g., "run", "sleep") cannot be made passive.