Understanding Active and Passive Voice Conversion

The question asks us to transform a sentence from active voice to passive voice. The given sentence is "They will not water the plants." This sentence is in the future simple tense and is in the negative form.

Identifying Sentence Components

In the active sentence "They will not water the plants":

• Subject: They
• Verb Phrase: will not water
• Object: the plants

The active voice focuses on the subject performing the action (They are doing the watering).

Converting to Passive Voice: Future Simple Negative

To convert a sentence from active to passive voice in the future simple tense (negative form), we follow these steps:

1. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
2. Use the future auxiliary verb "will", followed by "not", "be", and the past participle (V3) of the main verb.
3. The subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence, usually preceded by the preposition "by".

Applying the Conversion Steps

Let's apply the steps to the sentence "They will not water the plants":

1. Object 'the plants' becomes the new subject.
2. Verb 'water' becomes its past participle 'watered'. The structure becomes 'will not be watered'.
3. Subject 'They' becomes 'by them'.

Combining these parts, the passive sentence is: "The plants will not be watered by them."

The passive voice focuses on the action being performed and the receiver of the action (The plants are receiving the watering).

Analyzing the Options

Let's evaluate the given options based on our understanding of the conversion rules:

• Option 1: The plants will not be watered by them.
• Option 2: The plants will not be watered by us.
• Option 3: The plants are not be watered by them.
• Option 4: They shall not water the plants.

Comparing these options with the derived passive sentence:

• Option 1 correctly follows the structure: New Subject ('The plants') + 'will not be' + Past Participle ('watered') + 'by' + Original Subject ('by them'). This matches our conversion.
• Option 2 incorrectly changes the agent from 'them' to 'us'. The original subject was 'They', so the agent in the passive voice should be 'by them'.
• Option 3 uses the incorrect auxiliary verb 'are' instead of 'will be'. It also uses 'are not be' which is grammatically incorrect. This represents a present tense structure, not future simple.
• Option 4 remains in the active voice. The subject 'They' is still performing the action 'water'. While 'shall' can sometimes be used with 'They', the sentence is still active, not passive.

Therefore, Option 1 is the correct passive voice conversion of the given active sentence.

Revision Table: Active vs. Passive Voice

Additional Information: When to Use Passive Voice

The passive voice is often used in English when:

• The doer of the action is unknown or unimportant.
• We want to emphasize the action or the object receiving the action, rather than the subject.
• In scientific or technical writing, to sound more objective.
• When reporting news, where the focus is on the event itself.

For example, instead of "Someone stole my bicycle," you might say "My bicycle was stolen" if you don't know who stole it or don't want to name them. In the sentence "The plants will not be watered by them," the focus shifts to the status of the plants (they won't be watered), which might be more important in context.