Question

Choose the correct passive form of past tense from the options given below:
Fifty one trees ___ in the school campus last year.

• A. were planted
• B. were plant
• C. was planted
• D. planted

Answer 1

The correct option is A were planted

A sentence in passive voice focuses on the person or thing that receives an action rather than the person/thing that performs the action.
For example, 'My room was cleaned by me.'
The basic structure of passive voice is:
the appropriate form of the verb 'to be' + past participle
Option A: The given sentence states an event in the past "last year".
'Were planted' is the appropriate structure, formed by the past tense verb 'were' + past participle (planted). Hence option A is correct.
Option B: 'Plant' in 'were plant' is grammatically incorrect. Since the helping verb 'were' is in the past tense, the past tense form of the main verb 'planted' must be used. 'Plant' is the base verb that does not express the tense. Hence B is incorrect.
Option C: 'Was' (in 'was planted') is a singular verb whereas the subject 'trees' is plural. The subject and verb must agree with one another in terms of number. Hence C is incorrect.
Option D: 'Planted' is a past participle which requires a helping verb (auxiliary: were) to help determine the tense. Without this helping verb, the sentence sounds incomplete. Hence D is incorrect.