Question

Change the voice of the following sentence:
Who had been fined?

Answer 1

Hint: We have to change the sentence from passive voice into active voice. We can do this by adding the subject pronoun whom at the beginning of the sentence.

Complete answer:
 In the active voice, the emphasis is on the subject. The subject is usually performing some action or deed.
E.g., Jane placed a napkin on the table.
Here, Jane is the subject and napkin is the object. The object is subjected to an action by the subject i.e., a napkin is kept on the table and it is Jane who keeps the napkin.
Now how would we reverse this to form the passive voice? In the passive voice, the emphasis is on the action. Hence, it is the action that acts as the focal point of the sentence.
e.g. A napkin is placed on the table by Jane.
Here we have inverted the sentence so that the action comes first, and it is then followed by the subject. The object is the focus of an action done by the subject.
In the above question, we must add an extension to the sentence in the following way-
Who had been fined (by them)?
Now we must reframe this in such a manner that the action of fining and the ensuing object follow the interrogative pronoun and the verb.

This gives us the answer- Whom had they fined?

Note: When you change passive sentences into active sentences, you must ensure that the corresponding tense type remains the same.