Question

Her hand was cut by the knife.
The verb in the above sentence is in active voice.
A) True
B) False

Answer 1

Hint: There are two voices in the English Grammar- Active and Passive voice. To use an active verb, we describe the action of the subject whereas, in the usage of a passive verb, we state what happens to the subject. Another way to differentiate between both is that when we use passive verbs, the information regarding the reason behind an action or who performed it is missing.

For example:
Active: Somebody cleaned this house every day.
Passive: This house is cleaned every day.

Complete answer:
According to the question, we need to find out whether a given sentence is in active or passive voice.
Let’s understand the concepts behind this to analyse the right option.
Assume, X does something to Y.
Here, X is a doer of the action and Y is a receiver of the action.

We can say this sentence in two ways- Active and passive. To describe this in active voice we will use doer as a subject which expresses that subject is doing something to the object whereas to describe this in the passive voice, we will make receiver as a subject which states that something has happened with the subject.

Taking in account the sentence from the question: ‘Her hand was cut by the knife’.
In this, “her hand” is a subject and it is expressing that something has happened with it. Additionally,
The reason behind the cut as well as the information related to who did this is missing.
Hence, this sentence is in a passive voice.

Furthermore, to convert it into active voice, we will say- “She cut her hand with a knife”
Here, “She” is a subject and “her hand” is an object. In the sentence they are conveying that subject did something with the object. Additionally, the information regarding who performed the action is also present.

Therefore, the above statement mentioned in the question is false i.e, option ‘B’ is the correct answer. Because keeping in mind the above concepts we can say that “her hand was cut by knife” is not an active voice.
Note: While working with the Active and Passive voice, always remember we use active verbs like- built, is speaking, repair etc. in the active voice. On the flip side, in the passive voice we use passive verbs like- was built, is spoken, was repaired etc.