Question

Choose the correct passive form from the options given.
I've never seen these flowers before. What _________?

• A. Is it called
• B. Are they called
• C. Were called
• D. Are it called

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

Are they called

NOTE: The given question is in the passive voice and it requires an auxiliary, a pronoun and a verb in the past participle form.

The first sentence explains that the sentence is in the present perfect tense. Looking at options, we understand that the question is a general question, which requires a fact in the answer. Hence, we will use the simple present tense to fill in the blank.

Option A - 'Is it called' can be used in the passive voice to represent a sentence in the simple present tense. However, we can't use 'it' here as the subject in the given sentence is plural, and 'it' is a singular pronoun which can't be used for a plural subject. Thus option A is incorrect.

Option C - 'Were called' can be used in the passive voice to represent a sentence in the simple past tense. The given option doesn't have a pronoun, thus we can't use 'were called'. Hence, option C is incorrect.

Option D - 'Are it called' can be used in the passive voice, but 'it' can't be used for the plural subject. Hence, option D is incorrect.

Option B - 'Are they called' can be used in the passive voice to explain the given question in the simple present tense. 'They' can be used as a pronoun, because 'flowers' is a plural subject. Hence, option B is the correct answer.

'I've never seen these flowers before. What are they called?'