Question

Change the following sentence into passive voice :

The teacher told us a joke.

• A. We were told a joke by the teacher.
• B. A joke was told to us by the teacher.
• C. We was told a joke by the teacher.
• D. A joke were told to us by the teacher.

Answer 1

Answer: (A), (B)

The correct options are
A We were told a joke by the teacher.
B A joke was told to us by the teacher.

The sentence is in past tense and has two objects 'us' and 'a joke'; First transformation can be done converting 'us' into the subject- 'us' is converted to subjective pronoun 'we'; it is followed by a plural auxiliary verb as it is a plural subject; so 'told' is changed to 'were told', followed by Direct object 'a joke' and then the doer introduced by preposition 'by' So the correct answer is 'We were told a Joke by the teacher.'

Second way of conversion can be turning direct object 'a joke' into the subject; it is followed by a singular auxiliary verb as it is a singular subject; so 'told' is changed to 'was told', followed by Indirect object 'to us' and then the doer introduced by preposition 'by' So the correct answer 'A joke was told to us by the teacher.'