Question

Change the following sentence into passive voice :

Somebody built the house last year.

• A. The house was being built last year by somebody.
• B. The house was been built last year by somebody.
• C. The house has being built last year by somebody.
• D. The house was built last year by somebody.

Answer 1

The correct option is D The house was built last year by somebody.

When a sentence is written it's either in active or passive voice. Active voice describes a sentence where the subject (Somebody) performs an action stated by the verb (built) that affects the object (house). Passive voice describes a sentence where the action is performed 'by the' subject, and the subject has taken the position of the object. While changing a sentence from active to passive voice, the structure changes, the tense remains the same but its form (simple, perfect, continuous) changes, so that the meaning of the sentence does not change. The given sentence is in simple past tense, which when changed to passive voice, 'built' is changed to 'was built'. Hence option D is correct. 'Was' is an auxiliary verb that adds grammatical meaning to express the tense, without which the sentence of the passive voice would be grammatically incorrect, as in "The house built last year", this sentence sounds incomplete in meaning. 'Somebody' is omitted because it is evident in the passive voice that the house was built by some person. Option A is incorrect because the phrase "was being built" is in past continuous tense, and the required form is in simple past tense. Option B is incorrect because in the phrase "was been built", 'been' is always preceded by 'have' or its forms 'has' and 'had', and not by 'was'. Option C is incorrect because 'being' in the phrase "has being" is not preceded by have, has or had, but by 'was'.