English Grammar & Syntax Quiz: Identifying Active Vs Passive Voice
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Identifying Active Vs Passive VoiceQuestion 1 of 10

Analyze the sentence "The samples were believed by investigators to have been contaminated by runoff." Which option correctly identifies its passive constructions and agents?

Only "were believed" is passive, and runoff is the agent of that believing.
Only "have been contaminated" is passive, and investigators are its stated agent.
Both constructions are passive; investigators do the believing, and runoff causes the contamination.
Both constructions are active; the samples believe, and investigators contaminate them.
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English Grammar & Syntax Quiz

English Grammar & Syntax Quiz: Identifying Active Vs Passive Voice

Practice Identifying Active Vs Passive Voice in English Grammar & Syntax with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Identifying Active Vs Passive Voice, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for English Grammar & Syntax.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

Analyze the sentence "The samples were believed by investigators to have been contaminated by runoff." Which option correctly identifies its passive constructions and agents?

  1. Only "were believed" is passive, and runoff is the agent of that believing.
  2. Only "have been contaminated" is passive, and investigators are its stated agent.
  3. Both constructions are passive; investigators do the believing, and runoff causes the contamination. (correct answer)
  4. Both constructions are active; the samples believe, and investigators contaminate them.
Explanation: When a sentence contains multiple verb phrases, you need to examine each one independently for passive voice — the pattern of to be + past participle where the grammatical subject receives the action rather than performs it. In "The samples were believed by investigators to have been contaminated by runoff," two separate verb phrases appear: were believed and have been contaminated. For were believed, the subject "the samples" isn't doing the believing — investigators are. The phrase "by investigators" confirms them as the agent. For have been contaminated, "the samples" again receive the action, and "by runoff" names runoff as the agent. Both constructions follow the passive pattern perfectly, making C the correct answer. Choice A fails because it misidentifies the agent of were believed. Runoff contaminates; it doesn't believe anything. Runoff is the agent of contamination, not believing. Choice B makes the opposite error — it acknowledges have been contaminated as passive with the right agent (runoff), but it ignores were believed entirely and wrongly assigns investigators as agents of contamination rather than belief. Choice D is completely inverted: both verbs are clearly passive (the samples neither believe nor contaminate), and the constructions follow to be + past participle, which is the defining signature of passive voice. A useful strategy: whenever you spot a by phrase in a sentence, ask yourself "who or what is performing which action?" Each by phrase signals a separate agent for a separate passive verb. Tracing each agent back to its specific verb will help you avoid mixing them up — the most common trap in multi-passive sentences like this one.

Question 2

In the sentence "The editors had rejected the essay but were later persuaded by two reviewers to reconsider it," how do the two coordinated verb phrases differ?

  1. "Had rejected" is active; "were persuaded" is passive, with two reviewers as the stated agent. (correct answer)
  2. "Had rejected" is passive; "were persuaded" is active, with the editors as the stated agent.
  3. Both verb phrases are passive, and two reviewers are the stated agents of both actions.
  4. Both verb phrases are active, and the essay is the stated agent of the rejection.
Explanation: When a question asks you to compare verb phrases in a coordinated sentence, your first move should be to identify the voice of each verb — active (subject performs the action) or passive (subject receives the action) — and then locate any stated agents. In the sentence, "the editors" are the grammatical subject throughout. In the first clause, "had rejected" is a past perfect active verb: the editors are performing the rejection themselves, with "the essay" as the direct object. In the second clause, "were persuaded" is a passive construction (a form of to be + past participle). The editors are receiving the persuasion, and the phrase "by two reviewers" explicitly names the agent — the ones doing the persuading. This makes A correct: the first verb phrase is active, the second is passive, with two reviewers as the stated agent. Choice B reverses the logic entirely, claiming "had rejected" is passive and "were persuaded" is active — but passive voice requires a to be auxiliary plus a past participle, which "had rejected" does not have. Choice C claims both phrases are passive, which misreads "had rejected"; active constructions don't need a by-phrase to be active. Choice D claims both are active and misidentifies "the essay" as an agent — agents perform actions, but the essay is the target (direct object) of the rejection, not its performer. A handy strategy: to test for passive voice, ask "Is the subject doing or receiving the action?" If receiving, look for the by-phrase to find the stated agent. This two-step check will reliably separate active from passive in coordinated clauses.

Question 3

Consider the sentence: "The applications submitted by Friday will receive priority review." Which analysis of voice and agency is most accurate?

  1. "Submitted" is active, and "the applications" perform the act of submitting.
  2. "Submitted" is passive, and "Friday" is the stated agent of the action.
  3. "Submitted" is passive, but the agent is omitted; "by Friday" gives a deadline. (correct answer)
  4. "Will receive" is passive, and "priority review" is the stated agent.
Explanation: When analyzing voice and agency in English grammar, your first move should be to identify the verb form and ask two questions: Is the subject performing or receiving the action? And if the action is received, who or what is doing it? In "The applications submitted by Friday," the word "submitted" functions as a passive participial modifier — the applications aren't doing the submitting; they are being submitted by someone (applicants, presumably). The agent — the one actually doing the submitting — is never named in the sentence. This is called an agentless passive, a common construction when the doer is obvious or irrelevant. The phrase "by Friday" doesn't name an agent; it names a deadline, a point in time by which the action must be completed. That makes C the accurate analysis: passive voice, omitted agent, temporal "by" phrase. Choice A is wrong on both counts — "submitted" here is passive, not active, and "the applications" receive the action rather than perform it. Choice B correctly identifies "submitted" as passive, but then misreads "Friday" as the agent. This is a classic trap: the word "by" can introduce an agent (submitted by the clerk) or a deadline (submitted by noon) — context tells you which. Friday is a time, not a doer. Choice D misidentifies "will receive" as passive; it's actually active voice, with "the applications" as subject performing the receiving. Your key strategy: when you see "by + [noun]," always ask whether that noun can logically perform an action. If it's a time expression, it's a deadline, not an agent.

Question 4

Which statement best analyzes the voice and the stated agent in "The director expects the finalists to be interviewed by a three-member panel"?

  1. Both "expects" and "to be interviewed" are passive, with the panel as agent of both.
  2. "Expects" is passive, but "to be interviewed" is active with the finalists as agents.
  3. Both verb constructions are active, and the finalists are agents of the interview.
  4. "Expects" is active, while "to be interviewed" is passive with the panel as agent. (correct answer)
Explanation: When analyzing voice in a sentence, your job is to examine each verb phrase independently — a single sentence can contain both active and passive constructions at the same time. In "The director expects the finalists to be interviewed by a three-member panel," start with "expects." The director is the subject performing the action of expecting — that's a straightforward active construction. Now examine "to be interviewed," the infinitive embedded in the object clause. The finalists aren't doing the interviewing; they're receiving it. The phrase "by a three-member panel" explicitly names the agent performing the interview. This is the classic passive structure: be + past participle with a stated by-agent. That makes D the correct answer — "expects" is active, and "to be interviewed" is passive with the panel as the stated agent. Choice A incorrectly labels "expects" as passive. Since the director is the one doing the expecting, not receiving the action, this is clearly active. Choice B gets "expects" wrong in the same way, and then compounds the error by calling "to be interviewed" active — if the finalists were agents, they'd be doing the interviewing, not being interviewed. Choice C claims both constructions are active, which ignores the be + past participle structure and the by-phrase entirely, two reliable signals of passive voice. A useful strategy: when checking for passive voice, look for two signals together — a form of be paired with a past participle, often followed by a by-phrase naming the agent. If both are present, it's passive regardless of where it appears in the sentence.

Question 5

Which option best describes the sentence "The manager had the revised contract reviewed by outside counsel before signing it"?

  1. The main verb "had" is active, while "reviewed" is passive and names outside counsel as agent. (correct answer)
  2. The main verb "had" is passive, while "reviewed" is active with the contract as agent.
  3. Both "had" and "reviewed" are passive, and the manager is the agent of the review.
  4. Both "had" and "reviewed" are active, and outside counsel receives the review.
Explanation: When a question asks you to analyze voice in a sentence containing a causative construction, you need to identify two separate verbs and evaluate each one independently for active vs. passive voice. In "The manager had the revised contract reviewed by outside counsel before signing it," the causative verb "had" takes the manager as its subject — the manager is actively causing something to happen, so "had" is unambiguously active voice. The second verb, "reviewed," is a past participle functioning as a passive construction: the contract (the grammatical object) receives the action, and the agent performing the review — outside counsel — is introduced by the preposition "by." This is the hallmark of passive voice: the grammatical subject undergoes the action rather than performing it. Option A captures both of these points accurately and is the correct answer. Option B gets everything backwards, claiming "had" is passive and "reviewed" is active. The manager is clearly the one doing the causing (active), and the contract is being reviewed, not reviewing anything (passive). Option C incorrectly labels both verbs passive and misidentifies the agent — the manager arranges the review but doesn't perform it; outside counsel does. Option D calls both verbs active, which would mean the contract is actively reviewing something, which makes no grammatical or logical sense. A useful strategy: when you see a causative verb like have, get, or make followed by a past participle, that participle almost always signals a passive construction embedded within an active causative frame. Recognizing this two-layer structure will help you quickly cut through distractors that conflate the two verbs.

Question 6

Consider the sentence "Before the appeal was heard, the clerk had been given revised instructions by the chief judge." Which analysis is correct?

  1. Only "was heard" is passive, and the chief judge is its stated agent.
  2. Only "had been given" is passive, and the clerk is its stated agent.
  3. Both constructions are passive, and the chief judge is the stated agent only of "had been given." (correct answer)
  4. Both constructions are active, and the clerk performs both of the stated actions.
Explanation: When a question asks you to analyze passive constructions, your first job is to identify every verb phrase and test each one: does the subject perform the action, or receive it? In this sentence, you have two verb phrases to examine. "Was heard" follows the pattern be + past participle, and its grammatical subject is "the appeal" — the appeal doesn't do the hearing, it receives it. That's passive. Similarly, "had been given" follows had + been + past participle, and its subject is "the clerk" — the clerk doesn't give anything, the clerk receives the instructions. That's also passive. So both constructions are passive, which immediately rules out D. Now look at stated agents — the explicit by-phrases. "Had been given" has a clear agent: "by the chief judge." That's the person actually performing the giving. "Was heard," however, has no by-phrase at all; the agent (whoever heard the appeal) is simply omitted. This confirms C: both constructions are passive, and the chief judge is the stated agent only of "had been given." A is wrong because it correctly identifies "was heard" as passive but wrongly claims the chief judge is its agent — the chief judge appears later in the sentence attached to a different verb entirely. B is wrong on two counts: it misses that "was heard" is also passive, and it misidentifies the clerk as an agent when the clerk is actually the recipient of the action. D collapses entirely because neither subject performs its verb's action. Your strategy: in passive-voice questions, always bracket every be + past participle phrase separately, identify its grammatical subject, and then hunt specifically for by-phrases to locate stated agents.

Question 7

Which analysis correctly distinguishes the two uses of "by" in "By the end of the hearing, the proposal had been criticized by every committee member"?

  1. The sentence is active; both by-phrases identify people or things performing the criticism.
  2. The sentence is active; the first by-phrase gives time, and the second names the object.
  3. The sentence is passive; the first by-phrase names the agent, and the second gives time.
  4. The sentence is passive; the first by-phrase gives time, and the second names the agent. (correct answer)
Explanation: When a sentence contains a form of "to be" plus a past participle (here, "had been criticized"), you're looking at a passive construction — and that immediately rules out A and B, which both misidentify the sentence as active. In the passive voice, the grammatical subject ("the proposal") receives the action rather than performing it. Now focus on the two "by" phrases. "By the end of the hearing" answers the question when — it's an adverbial phrase indicating time. "By every committee member" answers the question who performed the action — that's the agent phrase, a hallmark of passive constructions where the original "doer" is reintroduced with "by." This combination — time first, agent second — matches answer D perfectly. Here's why the other choices fail. A and B both call the sentence active, which is simply wrong; "had been criticized" is an unmistakable passive verb. C gets the voice right (passive) but reverses the roles of the two phrases, incorrectly labeling the agent first and time second — the opposite of what the sentence actually says. A useful strategy: when you spot a passive sentence, first identify the passive verb (be + past participle), then distinguish each "by" phrase by asking two questions — "Does this tell me when or where?" (adverbial) versus "Does this tell me who did it?" (agent). Order matters, so map each phrase to its function before matching to the answer choices. On grammar exams, reversals like C are a common trap designed to catch students who recognize the voice correctly but mix up phrase functions.

Question 8

In the sentence "What the auditors questioned was the estimate in the final paragraph," which description is correct?

  1. The sentence is passive because "was" is followed by the noun phrase "the estimate."
  2. The sentence is active because the auditors perform the action expressed by "questioned." (correct answer)
  3. The sentence is passive because the estimate receives the auditors' act of questioning.
  4. The sentence is active because the estimate performs the action expressed by "was."
Explanation: When identifying voice in English, your focus should be on the main clause verb and whether its grammatical subject performs or receives the action — not on what happens inside subordinate clauses. This sentence uses a cleft construction: "What the auditors questioned" is a nominal relative clause functioning as the subject, and "was the estimate in the final paragraph" is the main predicate. The critical verb is "questioned," found inside that subject clause. The auditors are doing the questioning — they are the agent performing the action. That makes the sentence active voice, confirming that B is correct. A mistakes the linking verb "was" for a passive construction. Passive voice requires a form of be followed by a past participle (e.g., "was questioned"), not a noun phrase. "Was the estimate" is simply a copular structure linking two noun phrases — no passive here. C commits the same structural error as A but adds a semantic twist: while it's true that "the estimate" is what the auditors questioned, grammatical voice isn't determined by who receives an action thematically — it's determined by how the sentence is constructed. Since no passive structure exists, this reasoning is irrelevant. D is simply backwards. "The estimate" doesn't perform any action expressed by "was"; "was" is a linking verb, not an action verb, and the estimate is the predicate complement, not an agent. Your key takeaway: passive voice always requires be + past participle. If you don't see a past participle, there's no passive — no matter how complex the sentence looks.

Question 9

In the sentence "Several archived files got deleted by an automated script during the update," which interpretation is grammatically accurate?

  1. The clause is active because "got" means obtained, and the files perform the deleting.
  2. The clause is passive, and "an automated script" is the stated agent of deletion. (correct answer)
  3. The clause is passive, but "during the update" is the stated agent of deletion.
  4. The clause is active, and "an automated script" is the object receiving the action.
Explanation: When analyzing voice in a sentence, your first move should be identifying the grammatical subject and asking: is the subject doing the action, or receiving it? This distinction separates active from passive constructions. In "Several archived files got deleted by an automated script," the subject is "several archived files" — but the files aren't doing any deleting. They're receiving the action. The structure uses get-passive ("got deleted"), a common alternative to be-passive ("were deleted"). Both are genuinely passive constructions. The phrase "by an automated script" follows the classic by + agent pattern, explicitly naming who performed the deletion. That makes B the accurate interpretation: the clause is passive, and the agent is clearly stated. Choice A fails on two fronts. First, "got" here does not mean "obtained" — context rules that out entirely. Second, claiming the files "perform the deleting" contradicts the grammar; they're the recipients of the action, not the doers. Choice C correctly identifies the clause as passive but misidentifies the agent. "During the update" is a prepositional phrase of time, telling you when the deletion happened — not who caused it. Only a by-phrase introduces an agent. Choice D calls the clause active, which is wrong, and then misidentifies "an automated script" as the object — in a truly active version, the script would be the subject performing the action, not an object. Your takeaway: always check for the by + agent pattern to identify passive voice and distinguish the agent from other prepositional phrases like time or location modifiers.

Question 10

Which sentence contains a passive-voice verb and explicitly identifies the agent performing the action?

  1. By midnight, the technicians were ready to restart the system.
  2. The damaged circuit was replaced by the senior technician. (correct answer)
  3. The senior technician stood by the damaged circuit quietly.
  4. The technicians were concerned by midnight about the system.
Explanation: When a question asks you to identify a passive-voice verb with an explicit agent, you need to check two things simultaneously: (1) Is the verb in passive voice (a form of to be + past participle)? and (2) Is the "doer" of the action directly named using a by-phrase? In passive constructions, the grammatical subject receives the action rather than performing it, and the agent — when included — appears in a prepositional phrase beginning with by. Sentence B reads: "The damaged circuit was replaced by the senior technician." Here, was replaced is passive voice (auxiliary was + past participle replaced), and the agent performing the replacement is explicitly identified: the senior technician. That by-phrase isn't decorative — it names exactly who acted. B is your answer. Now, the distractors are carefully designed to mislead. Sentence A uses were ready, which is a linking verb with an adjective complement — no action is being done to the subject, so there's no passive voice at all. The phrase by midnight indicates time, not an agent. Sentence C is entirely active voice: the senior technician is the subject performing the action (stood), so the doer is front and center, not tucked into a by-phrase. Sentence D is the trickiest trap — were concerned looks passive, but "concerned" here functions as a predicate adjective (a stative expression), not a true passive construction. Additionally, by midnight again marks time, not an agent. Your study tip: always confirm both conditions — passive verb structure and an agent-naming by-phrase. A time-marking by-phrase is the most common trap on questions like this.