Understanding Passive Voice Transformation

The question asks us to convert the sentence "Mike decided to skip work" from active voice to passive voice. Let's first understand what active and passive voice mean.

• Active Voice: The subject of the sentence performs the action. (e.g., Mike decided)
• Passive Voice: The subject of the sentence receives the action. The focus is often on the action itself or the object of the action. The doer of the action (the original subject) is often mentioned using "by + doer".

Analyzing the Active Sentence: "Mike decided to skip work"

In this sentence:

• Subject: Mike
• Verb: decided (past tense)
• Object/Complement: to skip work (This is an infinitive phrase acting as the object of the verb "decided". The decision Mike made was about the action "to skip work").

Converting sentences with infinitive phrases like this requires careful consideration of which part becomes the subject of the passive sentence.

Rules for Passive Voice Conversion

The general structure for passive voice is:

Object of active sentence + form of 'be' + past participle of main verb + (by + subject of active sentence)

However, when the active sentence contains an infinitive phrase acting as the object (like "to skip work"), the passive transformation can be more complex. Often, the object within the infinitive phrase becomes the subject, the main verb is put into passive form, and the infinitive phrase is also put into its passive form ("to be" + past participle).

The passive form of the infinitive "to skip" is "to be skipped".

The passive form of the main verb "decided" (past tense) is "was decided".

Evaluating the Options for Passive Voice

Let's examine each option provided:

• Option 1: "Work is being skipped by Mike."

  This uses the present continuous passive ("is being skipped") and makes "Work" the subject of "skipped". The original sentence's main verb is "decided" (past tense), not "is skipping". This option does not correctly reflect the original sentence's meaning or tense.

• Option 2: "Work was skipped by Mike."

  This uses the past simple passive ("was skipped") and makes "Work" the subject of "skipped". This would be the passive voice of "Mike skipped work". The original sentence states that Mike *decided* to skip work, not that he actually *did* skip it (at the time the decision was made). This option changes the meaning.

• Option 3: "Work is decided to be skipped by Mike."

  This uses the present simple passive for "decided" ("is decided"). The original verb "decided" is in the past tense. Therefore, this option is incorrect due to the wrong tense of the main verb's passive form.

• Option 4: "The work was decided to be skipped by Mike."

  Let's break this down:

  • "The work": The object from the infinitive phrase ("work") becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
  • "was decided": This is the past simple passive form of the main verb "decided". This correctly reflects the tense and the fact that the decision was made.
  • "to be skipped": This is the passive form of the infinitive "to skip". It indicates that the action of skipping is to be applied to the subject ("The work").
  • "by Mike": This indicates the agent who performed the main action (deciding).

  This option correctly transforms the sentence into passive voice by making "The work" the subject, using the passive form of "decided" (was decided), and using the passive infinitive "to be skipped" to show what was decided about the work. It accurately conveys the original meaning.

Conclusion on Passive Transformation

Based on the analysis, Option 4 correctly converts the sentence "Mike decided to skip work" into passive voice.

Revision Table: Passive Voice Conversion Basics

Additional Information: Sentences with Infinitives in Passive Voice

When a sentence contains an infinitive phrase (to + verb) and you want to convert it to passive voice, the structure depends on how the infinitive is used. In sentences like "Subject + Verb (like decide, plan, agree, hope) + to + Verb + Object", the passive voice often follows the pattern seen in the correct option:

Object of infinitive + Passive form of main verb + Passive infinitive (to be + Past Participle of infinitive verb) + (by Subject of main verb)

For example:

• Active: They planned to build a new school.
• Passive: A new school was planned to be built by them.

This structure ensures that both the decision/plan (expressed by the main verb) and the intended action (expressed by the infinitive) are correctly represented in the passive form, with the original object of the infinitive becoming the focus.