Question

Change the following sentence to Passive voice:
Does he speak English?
a. Did he speak English?
b. Will he speak English?
c. Does he know English?
d. Is English spoken by him?

Answer 1

Hint: The student should read the given sentences carefully and pay heed to the structure. Note the tense, person and placement of words in the sentence and then follow the rules of voice to convert it into passive voice.

Complete answer: In this question, it will be helpful for the student to recall the concept of active voice. Active voice is the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is performing the action or causing the happening denoted by the verb.
Passive voice is the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient (not the source) of the action denoted by the verb.
Let us thus analyze the options given to us in this question -
Option (a.), 'Did he speak English?', is incorrect as it only changes the tense of the sentence (from present to past) instead of changing the voice.
Option (b.), ‘Will he speak English?', is incorrect as it only changes the tense of the sentence (from present to future) instead of changing the voice.
Option (c.), ‘Does he know English?', is incorrect as it only changes the verb ‘speak’ to ‘know’ instead of changing the voice.
Option (d.), ‘Is English spoken by him?', refers to a sentence in the passive voice.
Therefore, option (d.) is correct as the given sentence in passive voice since the subject ‘he’ seems like the recipient of the action and not the source.

Note: Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms. Passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle. When we want to show the person or thing doing the action, we use by.