Question

Choose the most suitable passive voice conversion of the given sentence:
Call the ambulance at once.
a) At once call the ambulance.
b) The ambulance should be called at once.
c) Let the ambulance be called at once.
d) Both B and C.

Answer 1

Hint: In active voice, the subject performs the action, however, in the passive voice, the subject is missing. It is not outrightly visible, nor is it a command.

Complete answer:
Let us first understand what active and passive voices are.
An active voice means that a sentence has a subject that acts upon its verb. This means that the subject is implied or is present in the sentence. For example, in the given question, the sentence ‘Call the ambulance at once’, implies that there is a subject being spoken to.

Passive voice means that a subject is a recipient of a verb's action. This means that the subject is not visible. It is usually there but is considered invisible. At the end of a passive sentence, in order to make the subject visible, you just need to add ‘by someone’. This becomes the placeholder subject.

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.

Now, we know what we are looking for. Let’s look at the given options:

a) At once call the ambulance - In this sentence, only the order of the adverbial phrase has been changed. The structure of the sentence is the same. It is not in passive voice. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) The ambulance should be called at once - In this sentence, the structure is ‘object + verb + (subject)’. This is in the passive voice. However, it is not the only correct option. So, this is an incorrect option.
c) Let the ambulance be called at once - In this sentence also, the structure is ‘object + verb + (subject)’. This is also in the passive voice. However, it is not the only correct option. So, this is also an incorrect option.
d) Both B and C - This is clearly the most appropriate option as the above two options are both in a passive voice and are grammatically correct. So, this is the actual correct option.

Note:
Understand the concepts of active and passive voice. It is easier to understand it with the given examples. Then, go through the given options and see which ones best fit the description of passive voice. Choose the correct option accordingly.