Understanding Voice Transformation: Passive to Active

The question asks us to convert a sentence from the passive voice to the active voice. Understanding the difference between these two voices is crucial for sentence transformation.

What are Active and Passive Voice?

• Active Voice: In the active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action. The structure is typically Subject + Verb + Object. For example, "The dog chased the ball." (The dog is the subject and performs the action of chasing).
• Passive Voice: In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence receives the action. The structure is typically Object + Be (helping verb) + Past Participle of Verb + by + Subject (doer of the action, often optional). For example, "The ball was chased by the dog." (The ball is the subject and receives the action of being chased).

Analyzing the Given Passive Sentence

The sentence provided is: "All the electric poles in the suburbs were destroyed by the cyclone last year."

Let's break down its structure:

• Subject (Receiver of action): All the electric poles in the suburbs
• Helping Verb: were
• Main Verb (Past Participle): destroyed
• Doer of action (introduced by 'by'): the cyclone
• Other elements (Time/Place): last year

This structure matches the passive voice pattern: Subject (receiver) + be + past participle (+ by + doer).

Steps to Convert Passive Voice to Active Voice

To transform a passive sentence into an active one, we follow these steps:

1. Identify the doer of the action in the passive sentence (it's usually after 'by'). This will become the new subject in the active sentence.
2. Identify the main verb (past participle) in the passive sentence. Determine the correct tense of the verb needed for the active sentence based on the helping verb (e.g., 'was/were destroyed' indicates simple past tense).
3. Identify the subject in the passive sentence (the receiver of the action). This will become the object in the active sentence.
4. Remove the 'by' phrase and the helping verb ('be').
5. Construct the active sentence using the structure: New Subject (doer) + Verb (in correct tense) + New Object (receiver) + Other elements.

Applying the Steps to the Sentence

Let's apply these steps to "All the electric poles in the suburbs were destroyed by the cyclone last year."

1. Doer: the cyclone. This becomes the active subject.
2. Verb: 'were destroyed' is past tense passive. The active verb will be the simple past tense of 'destroy', which is 'destroyed'.
3. Receiver: All the electric poles in the suburbs. This becomes the active object.
4. Remove 'were' and 'by'.
5. Construct Active Sentence: The cyclone + destroyed + all the electric poles in the suburbs + last year.

The resulting active voice sentence is: "The cyclone destroyed all the electric poles in the suburbs last year."

Analyzing the Options

Let's examine the given options to find the one that matches our derived active sentence:

• Option 1: The cyclone destroyed all the electric poles in the suburbs last year.
  • Subject: The cyclone (doer)
  • Verb: destroyed (simple past tense)
  • Object: all the electric poles in the suburbs (receiver)
  • Other elements: last year
  This sentence correctly follows the active voice structure and accurately reflects the action and participants from the original passive sentence.
• Option 2: The cyclone was being destroyed with all the electric poles in the suburbs last year.
  • This sentence changes the subject to 'The cyclone' but makes it the receiver of the action ('was being destroyed'), which is incorrect and changes the meaning entirely. It is also in the passive voice (past continuous passive).
• Option 3: The cyclone was destroyed by the all the electric poles in the suburbs last year.
  • This sentence is in the passive voice ('was destroyed') and incorrectly makes 'The cyclone' the receiver of the action performed by 'all the electric poles'. This reverses the original meaning.
• Option 4: The cyclone destroyed all the suburbs by the electric poles last year.
  • This sentence is in the active voice but changes the object from 'electric poles' to 'suburbs'. It also includes an awkward and grammatically incorrect 'by the electric poles' phrase modifying 'destroyed'. This significantly alters the original meaning.

Comparing the options, Option 1 is the only one that correctly converts the passive sentence into the active voice while preserving the original meaning.

Conclusion

Based on the analysis and the steps for transforming passive to active voice, Option 1 accurately represents the given sentence in the active voice.

Revision Table: Active and Passive Voice

Additional Information: Voice of Verbs

The voice of a verb tells us whether the subject of the verb is performing the action (active voice) or receiving the action (passive voice). Understanding verb voice is fundamental to constructing clear and grammatically correct sentences.

Key points about verb voice:

• Only transitive verbs (verbs that can take a direct object) can be used in the passive voice. Intransitive verbs (like 'arrive', 'sleep', 'run') cannot be made passive because they do not have an object to become the passive subject.
• The passive voice is formed using a form of the auxiliary verb 'be' (am, is, are, was, were, being, been) followed by the past participle of the main verb.
• While the passive voice is grammatically correct, the active voice is generally preferred in most writing styles because it is more direct, concise, and energetic. Overuse of the passive voice can make writing sound awkward or unclear, especially if the 'by' phrase (indicating the doer) is omitted.
• Transforming sentences between active and passive voice is a common exercise to improve writing flexibility and understanding of sentence structure.