Question

The sentence has been given in the Active/Passive voice. From the given options, choose the one which best expresses the given sentence in the Passive/Active voice.
Who wrote this book?
A) By whom was this book written?
B) By whom is this book written?
C) By whom was this book being written?
D) By whom is this book being written?

Answer 1

Hint: Any sentence that we write in the structure ‘subject-verb-object is generally in the active voice. For e.g. The children ate the cake. When we change this sentence to the passive voice, the subject becomes the object and the verb is changed to its participle form. For e.g. The cake was eaten by the children.

Complete answer:
To convert a sentence from the active voice, we first interchange the subject and the object. The subject of the active voice becomes the object of the passive voice and vice versa. In addition to this, we also need to convert the verb from whichever form it might be to the participle form. Let us consider the options and see which of them abide by the process given above.

Now let us look at the given options:
Option A) By whom was this book written – First of all the subject in the active voice (who) has become the object in the passive voice (whom). The object in the active voice (book) has become the subject in the passive voice. The ‘be’ verb in the passive sentence, has to be in the same tense as that of the active voice. Thus, it should be ‘was’, and it is so in this option. The sentence is in the correct tense and in the passive voice. Thus, this option is correct.
Option B) By whom is this book written – To change the active voice into passive, we need to keep the ‘be’ verb of the passive voice in the same tense as that of the active voice. Hence it should be ‘was’. But in this option it is ‘is’ which brings it in the present tense. This makes this option incorrect.
Option C) By whom was this book being written – In this option the question being asked is the past perfect tense. The interrogative sentence given in the question is using the simple past tense. While changing the sentence from active to passive, we are not supposed to change its tense. Hence, this option is incorrect.
Option D) By whom is this book being written – In this option the question is asked in the present perfect tense, while the original sentence in the question is in simple past tense. As we know, we cannot change the tense of the sentence in active/passive conversions. Hence this option is also incorrect.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (A) By whom was this book written.

Note: The passive voice is used in the following instances;
When we do not know or we do not want to say who did a certain action. For e.g. The robbery was carried out by someone working inside this organization. (we do not know who did the robbery)
When we want to focus on the object, as it is more important. For e.g. The book, Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelly. (the book Frankenstein, is more famous than its writer, Mary Shelly)