Question

Identify the past participle in the following sentence and say whether it is in active or passive form.
The first railway was built by George Stephenson.
a) was built, active
b) was built, passive
c) built, active
d) built, passive

Answer 1

Hint: Active voice and Passive voice are two types of grammatical voices. The subject performs the action of the verb in active voice while in the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb.

Complete answer:
As given in the hint, both active and passive voice have distinct functions and uses.
Let’s look at the usage of these voices-
Active voice- The boy is eating an apple.
Passive voice- An apple was being eaten by the boy.
In the given question- We know that George Stephenson had built the first railway. Here, ‘built’ is present in the passive voice, because the subject ‘George Stephenson’ receives the action of the verb ‘built’.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘was built, active’ is given in the simple past tense form of the verb, and also it is present in the active voice. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
Option b- ‘was built, passive’ is given in the simple past tense form of the verb. But it does not indicate the past participle form verb. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
Option c- ‘built, active’ contains ‘built’ which is the past participle verb that is present in the passive voice. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
Option d- ‘built, passive’ contains ‘built’ which is the past participle verb that is given in the passive voice. Hence, it is the correct option.
So, the correct answer is “Option d”.

Note:
A past participle verb is usually formed by adding ‘ed’ ‘d’, but many irregular verbs have their own suitable suffixes. Also, the past participle form of a verb is also known as the 3rd form of the verb.