Understanding Passive Voice Transformation

Converting a sentence from active voice to passive voice changes the focus of the sentence. In the active voice, the subject performs the action. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action.

The given sentence is: "They are hitting the ball."

Analyzing the Active Sentence Structure

Let's break down the active sentence:

• Subject: They
• Verb: are hitting (Present Continuous Tense)
• Object: the ball

The subject "They" is performing the action "hitting" on the object "the ball".

Passive Voice Conversion Rules: Present Continuous Tense

To transform a sentence in the Present Continuous Tense from active to passive voice, we follow specific steps:

1. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
2. The verb form changes from 'is/am/are + verb-ing' to 'is/am/are + being + past participle of the verb'. The choice of 'is', 'am', or 'are' depends on the new subject's number and person.
3. The subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence, usually introduced by the preposition 'by'. This part is sometimes omitted if the agent (the performer of the action) is unknown or unimportant.

Applying the Rules to "They are hitting the ball"

Let's apply the conversion steps:

1. The object of the active sentence is "the ball". This becomes the new subject of the passive sentence.
2. The verb in the active sentence is "are hitting" (Present Continuous). The new subject is "the ball", which is singular. So, we use "is". The past participle of "hit" is "hit". The passive verb form becomes "is being hit".
3. The subject of the active sentence is "They". This becomes the object in the passive sentence, introduced by 'by'. So, it becomes "by them".

Combining these parts, the passive voice sentence is: "The ball is being hit by them."

Comparing with the Options

Let's look at the provided options and compare them with our transformed sentence:

• Option 1: The ball has been hit by them. (This is Passive Voice of Present Perfect Tense)
• Option 2: The ball is being hitten by them. ('hitten' is incorrect; the past participle of hit is 'hit')
• Option 3: The ball is hit by them. (This is Passive Voice of Simple Present Tense)
• Option 4: The ball is being hit by them. (This matches our transformed sentence)

Therefore, the correct option expressing the given sentence in passive voice is "The ball is being hit by them."

Revision Table: Active vs. Passive Voice - Present Continuous

Additional Information on Passive Voice

The passive voice is often used when:

• The action is more important than the performer of the action.
• The performer of the action (the agent) is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from the context.
• We want to be more formal or objective.
• We want to avoid mentioning the subject who performed the action.

For example, instead of saying "Someone stole my phone," we can say "My phone was stolen." Here, the focus is on the event (the phone being stolen) rather than who stole it.