Converting Active Voice to Passive Voice

The given sentence is "She is laughing at me."

This sentence is in the Active Voice, specifically in the Present Continuous tense.

The structure of a sentence in the Present Continuous Active Voice is:

Subject + is/am/are + Verb(-ing) + Object

In the given sentence:

• Subject: She
• Verb phrase: is laughing at
• Object: me

Note that the verb 'laugh' is often followed by the preposition 'at' when it takes an object. This 'at' must be kept with the verb in the passive voice.

Rules for Converting Present Continuous Active to Passive Voice

To change a sentence from Active Voice (Present Continuous) to Passive Voice, we follow these steps:

1. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
2. Use the correct form of the verb 'to be' in the Present Continuous tense (is/am/are + being) according to the new subject.
3. Use the past participle (V3) of the main verb.
4. The subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence, usually preceded by 'by'.
5. Keep any prepositions that are part of the verb phrase.

Applying the Rules to "She is laughing at me."

1. The object is "me". It becomes the subject "I" in the passive voice.
2. The new subject is "I", so we use "am being" (form of 'to be' + being).
3. The main verb is "laughing". The past participle of "laugh" is "laughed".
4. The original subject is "She". It becomes "by her" in the passive voice.
5. The preposition "at" associated with "laughing" is kept.

Putting it all together:

I + am being + laughed + at + by her.

The passive sentence is: "I am being laughed at by her."

Analyzing the Options

Let's examine the given options based on our derivation:

• Option 1: I am being laughed at by her.
  This sentence matches the structure and tense of the Present Continuous Passive Voice derived above. It correctly uses "am being", the past participle "laughed", keeps the preposition "at", and uses "by her".
• Option 2: I have been laughed by her.
  This is in the Present Perfect Passive tense ("have been laughed"), which is incorrect for a Present Continuous active sentence. It also incorrectly omits the preposition "at".
• Option 3: I was being laughed at by her.
  This is in the Past Continuous Passive tense ("was being laughed"), which is incorrect for a Present Continuous active sentence.
• Option 4: I had been laughed by her.
  This is in the Past Perfect Passive tense ("had been laughed"), which is incorrect for a Present Continuous active sentence. It also incorrectly omits the preposition "at".

Based on the analysis, only Option 1 correctly transforms the active sentence "She is laughing at me" into the passive voice while maintaining the correct tense (Present Continuous) and including the necessary preposition "at".

Revision Table: Active and Passive Voice Transformations (Key Tenses)

Additional Information on Voice Change and Phrasal Verbs

Some verbs in English are followed by specific prepositions to complete their meaning when they take an object. These are sometimes called phrasal verbs or simply verbs followed by prepositions. When such a verb is changed to passive voice, the preposition must stay with the verb.

For example:

• Active: They look after the child.
• Passive: The child is looked after by them. (The preposition 'after' stays with 'looked')
• Active: Everyone spoke about the accident.
• Passive: The accident was spoken about by everyone. (The preposition 'about' stays with 'spoken')

In our sentence, "laugh at" is similar. The action is "laughing" and it is directed "at me". Therefore, the "at" is part of the effective verb phrase interacting with the object and must be included in the passive voice construction.