Question

Change the following sentence into passive voice:
They play handball.
a. Handball are played by them.
b. Handball were played by them.
c. Handball is played by them.
d. Handball was played by them.

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence and understand what it means. Now, try to convey the same sentence to a third person. Go through the options and choose the one which matches or is the closest to the sentence you just framed. Make sure that the sentence is grammatically sound.

Complete answer: Let us first understand what active and passive voices
are. Active voice means that the given sentence has a subject that performs its verb. In short,
this means that the subject is visible or is present in the sentence.
Passive voice means that a subject is in place of an object, i.e. a recipient of a verb’s
action. This means that the subject is not outrightly seen. It is usually there but is
considered invisible.
In order to convert the active voice into passive voice, all you need to do is change the
order of the parts of speech. So, the ‘subject + verb + object’ in the active voice changes to
‘object + verb + (subject)’ in the passive voice.
One CANNOT change the tenses of the verbs.
Now, we know what we are looking for. Let’s look at the given options:
a. Handball are played by them. - This sentence is in the passive voice. However, the verb does not match the subject, as the subject is singular and the verb is plural. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b. Handball were played by them. - This sentence is also passive voice. However, the verb does not match the subject, as the subject is singular and the verb is plural. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c. Handball is played by them. - This sentence is also passive voice. The verb is in the correct tense and it matches the subject perfectly. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.
d. Handball was played by them. - This sentence is also passive voice. However, the verb does not match the subject, as the tense of the verb has been changed. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
Therefore, option c. is correct.

Note: In active voice, the subject performs the action, however, in the passive voice, the subject is placed at the end of the sentence. It is not outrightly visible, nor is it a command. Make sure to pay particular attention to the verbs and tenses of the options.