Understanding Passive Voice Conversion

The question asks us to convert the given sentence, "Their behaviour vexes us," from active voice to passive voice. To do this accurately, we need to identify the tense of the original sentence and apply the correct rules for converting that tense to passive voice.

Analysing the Active Sentence

The sentence "Their behaviour vexes us" has the following structure:

• Subject: Their behaviour
• Verb: vexes
• Object: us

The verb "vexes" is in the simple present tense. The simple present tense is used to describe actions that are habitual, general truths, or fixed arrangements. In this case, it describes the ongoing effect of "their behaviour" on "us".

Rules for Simple Present Passive Voice

To convert a sentence from active voice (Simple Present) to passive voice, we follow these steps:

1. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
2. Use the appropriate form of the verb 'to be' in the simple present tense (am, is, or are) according to the new subject.
3. Use the past participle (V3) of the main verb from the active sentence.
4. The subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the preposition 'by'.

Applying the Rules to "Their behaviour vexes us"

Let's apply these steps to the given sentence:

• Step 1 (New Subject): The object 'us' becomes the new subject 'We'.
• Step 2 (Form of 'to be'): For the subject 'We', the correct form of 'to be' in the simple present is 'are'.
• Step 3 (Past Participle): The past participle of the verb 'vex' is 'vexed'.
• Step 4 ('by' phrase): The original subject 'Their behaviour' becomes 'by their behaviour'.

Putting it all together, the passive voice sentence is: "We are vexed by their behaviour."

Evaluating the Options for Passive Voice

Let's look at the given options and see which one matches our derived passive sentence:

• Option 1: We had been vexed by their behaviour. (Uses Past Perfect Passive - Incorrect tense)
• Option 2: We are vexed by their behaviour. (Uses Simple Present Passive - Correct tense and structure)
• Option 3: We have been vexed by their behaviour. (Uses Present Perfect Passive - Incorrect tense)
• Option 4: We are being vexed by their behaviour. (Uses Present Continuous Passive - Incorrect tense)

Based on the rules for converting simple present active voice to passive voice, Option 2 is the correct conversion of "Their behaviour vexes us".

Revision Table: Active and Passive Voice Conversion

Additional Information: The Purpose of Passive Voice

The passive voice is often used when the action is more important than the doer of the action, or when the doer is unknown or obvious. In the sentence "We are vexed by their behaviour," the focus shifts from "their behaviour" to the state of being "vexed" that "we" experience.

Understanding how to convert between active and passive voice is a crucial skill in English grammar, helping to vary sentence structure and emphasize different parts of a sentence.