Question

Change the following sentence into passive voice:
Who is playing football?
(a)Football is played by whom?
(b)By whom is football played?
(c)By whom is football being played?
(d)By whom is football been played?

Answer 1

Hint: The given sentence is in the active voice. Try to understand the information it is trying to convey and then convey the same to a third person in your head. Go through the options and check which of them match with the sentence you just formed or is closest to it. Make sure the sentence formed is grammatically sound.

Complete answer: An active voice is a sentence where the action/verb is done by the subject of the sentence. Example: I am reading an interesting book. A passive voice is a sentence where the verb is acted upon by the subject of the sentence. Example: An interesting book is being read by me. While changing from active to passive, we have to make the object in the active sentence the subject in the passive sentence. We have to add the verb “to be” but while doing so we should see that the tense of the sentence does not change. Let us analyse the given options:
(a)Football is played by whom?- The tense has changed in this answer. The given question is in the present continuous tense but this answer is in the past tense.
(b)By whom is football played?- The tense has to remain the same in the passive voice. In this option, the tense is in the past tense while the given question is in the present continuous tense.
(c)By whom is football being played?- In this sentence, the object of the given question has become the subject. The tense is also in the present continuous tense with the use of “being played”. It is the right answer.
(d)By whom is football been played?- “been” is a past participle which is not to be used in this answer. It is a wrong usage since “been” is used with a past perfect or present perfect tense and this sentence is neither past perfect tense nor a present perfect tense.
The correct answer is option c.

Note: Options c and d may create confusion because of the usage of “being” and “been”. They are phonetically similar. “Been” is used with perfect tenses of past and present while “being” is used as a continuous tense.