Module: | Advanced Structures (Infinitives & Clauses)
Q88: Consider the following statements regarding sentence transformations:
1. The active sentence "The manager approved the loan" converts to the passive voice as "The loan was approved by the manager."
2. The active sentence "He said that he would go" converts to the passive voice as "It was said by him that he would go."
3. The active sentence "The committee had been debating complex amendments when the bell rang" converts to the passive voice as "Complex amendments had been being debated by the committee when the bell rang."
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
2. The active sentence "He said that he would go" converts to the passive voice as "It was said by him that he would go."
3. The active sentence "The committee had been debating complex amendments when the bell rang" converts to the passive voice as "Complex amendments had been being debated by the committee when the bell rang."
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
✅ Correct Answer: A
🎯 Quick Answer:
Statements 1 and 2 execute grammatically sound transformations for standard past tense and subordinate clause sentences. Statement 3 forces an invalid continuous passive structure.Structural Breakdown: Statement 1 is a perfect execution of the "was + V3" simple past rule.
Statement 2 smoothly uses the dummy subject "It" to passively convert the reporting verb ("said") while leaving the subordinate clause ("that he would go") untouched.
Historical/Related Context: The debate over perfect continuous passive sentences is a hallmark of SSC English.
While technically achievable in theoretical linguistics, standardized Indian competitive exams uniformly reject perfect continuous tenses in the passive voice due to their extreme structural clumsiness.
Causal Reasoning: Statement 3 is incorrect because the active sentence is in the Past Perfect Continuous tense ("had been debating"). In standard English grammar rules enforced by testing bodies, the Present Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous, Future Continuous, and Future Perfect Continuous tenses cannot be converted into the passive voice.