English Grammar & Syntax Quiz: Revising To Active Voice
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Revising To Active VoiceQuestion 1 of 10

At 8:00, Dr. Chen instructed her assistant to prepare the specimens. By 9:00, the slides had been labeled and entered in the laboratory log. Dr. Chen then inspected the assistant's completed work.

Based on the context, which active-voice revision of the second sentence is clearest and preserves the original time relationship?

By 9:00, the assistant had labeled the slides and entered them in the laboratory log.
By 9:00, Dr. Chen had labeled the slides and entered them in the laboratory log.
By 9:00, the assistant labeled the slides and entered them in the laboratory log.
By 9:00, the assistant had labeled the slides, and the log had recorded them.
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English Grammar & Syntax Quiz

English Grammar & Syntax Quiz: Revising To Active Voice

Practice Revising To Active 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 Revising To Active 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

At 8:00, Dr. Chen instructed her assistant to prepare the specimens. By 9:00, the slides had been labeled and entered in the laboratory log. Dr. Chen then inspected the assistant's completed work.

Based on the context, which active-voice revision of the second sentence is clearest and preserves the original time relationship?

  1. By 9:00, the assistant had labeled the slides and entered them in the laboratory log. (correct answer)
  2. By 9:00, Dr. Chen had labeled the slides and entered them in the laboratory log.
  3. By 9:00, the assistant labeled the slides and entered them in the laboratory log.
  4. By 9:00, the assistant had labeled the slides, and the log had recorded them.
Explanation: When converting passive voice to active voice, you need to identify who performed the action and ensure the new subject is both grammatically accurate and contextually supported. You also need to preserve the original tense, which here is past perfect ("had been labeled") — a tense used to show one past action was completed before another. The passage establishes a clear sequence: Dr. Chen gave instructions at 8:00, and by 9:00, the work was done. The third sentence confirms it was the assistant's completed work that Dr. Chen later inspected. This tells you the assistant performed the actions in sentence two. Choice A correctly names the assistant as the subject, uses the past perfect ("had labeled... entered"), and preserves the original timeline — making it the clearest, most faithful revision. B mistakenly attributes the work to Dr. Chen, which contradicts the passage: Dr. Chen assigned the task and later inspected it, meaning she didn't do it herself. C uses simple past ("labeled") instead of past perfect, which loses the temporal relationship — the past perfect signals that the labeling was fully completed before Dr. Chen's inspection, a distinction the original sentence makes. D is awkward and grammatically misleading: logs don't "record" entries on their own, and splitting the sentence this way introduces unnecessary passivity and unclear agency. Strategy tip: When revising passive sentences, always ask two questions: Who logically performed the action based on context? and What tense preserves the original time relationship? Getting both right is what separates the best answer from a plausible-sounding trap.

Question 2

The proposal that was drafted by the interns has been approved by the director.

Which revision eliminates both passive constructions while preserving the relationships among the proposal, the interns, and the director?

  1. The interns have approved the proposal that the director drafted.
  2. The director approved the proposal that the interns have been drafting.
  3. The director has approved the proposal that the interns drafted. (correct answer)
  4. The proposal that the interns drafted has been approved by the director.
Explanation: When a question asks you to eliminate passive constructions, your first job is to identify every passive verb phrase in the original sentence. A passive construction follows the pattern to be + past participle, where the grammatical subject receives the action rather than performing it. In the original, you have two passives: "was drafted by the interns" and "has been approved by the director." To fix both, you need active verbs where the true agent (the doer) becomes the grammatical subject. Choice C accomplishes exactly this. "The director has approved" is active — the director performs the approving. "The interns drafted" is also active — the interns perform the drafting. Crucially, all three relationships are preserved: the interns drafted the proposal, and the director approved it. C is your answer. Choice A inverts the relationships entirely, making the interns the approvers and the director the drafter — the opposite of the original meaning. This isn't revision; it's rewriting the story. Choice B contains a subtle error: "the interns have been drafting" implies the drafting is still ongoing, distorting the original timeline and introducing a progressive aspect that changes the meaning. The drafting was completed before the approval. Choice D only fixes one passive. "The interns drafted" is active, but "has been approved by the director" remains passive — the proposal is still the grammatical subject receiving the action rather than the director performing it. As a strategy, always count the passive constructions in the original before evaluating any answer choice, and verify each answer eliminates all of them without altering who does what to whom.

Question 3

While the finance team is reviewing the invoices, disputed charges are being checked by counsel, and duplicate entries have been removed by the auditors.

Which revision makes the two passive clauses active while maintaining the original aspect of every verb phrase?

  1. While the finance team reviews the invoices, counsel checked disputed charges, and the auditors removed duplicate entries.
  2. While the finance team is reviewing the invoices, counsel is checking disputed charges, and the auditors have removed duplicate entries. (correct answer)
  3. While counsel is reviewing the invoices, the finance team is checking disputed charges, and the auditors had removed duplicate entries.
  4. While the finance team is reviewing the invoices, counsel has checked disputed charges, and duplicate entries are removed by the auditors.
Explanation: When a question asks you to convert passive constructions to active voice "while maintaining the original aspect," you need to track two things simultaneously: who is performing the action (voice) and when/how the action is occurring (aspect). Verb aspect in English includes simple, progressive (ongoing action), and perfect (completed action). Start with the original passage. The first clause uses present progressive active ("is reviewing"). The two passive clauses carry their own aspects: "are being checked" is present progressive passive, and "have been removed" is present perfect passive. Your job is to make those two clauses active while preserving their respective aspects — progressive for the first, perfect for the second. Choice B does exactly this. "Counsel is checking" converts present progressive passive to present progressive active, and "the auditors have removed" converts present perfect passive to present perfect active. Both agents are correctly identified, and both aspects are preserved. Choice A fails immediately because it shifts all verbs to simple past ("checked," "removed"), abandoning the progressive and perfect aspects entirely. Choice C introduces two problems: it swaps the subjects (counsel and the finance team trade roles, changing meaning) and incorrectly uses past perfect ("had removed") instead of present perfect. Choice D only fixes one passive clause ("counsel has checked" — though this shifts to perfect rather than preserving progressive) while leaving the second clause still passive ("are removed by the auditors"), so it doesn't fulfill the task at all. Your study tip: always identify aspect and voice separately before evaluating answer choices. These questions often disguise aspect errors inside otherwise grammatical-looking sentences.

Question 4

A revised schedule was sent to each contractor by the coordinator after the dates had been confirmed by the inspectors.

Which revision uses active voice throughout and most precisely preserves the sequence of events?

  1. The inspectors confirmed the dates after the coordinator had sent each contractor a revised schedule.
  2. The coordinator had sent each contractor a revised schedule after the inspectors confirmed the dates.
  3. After the coordinator confirmed the dates, the inspectors sent each contractor a revised schedule.
  4. After the inspectors had confirmed the dates, the coordinator sent each contractor a revised schedule. (correct answer)
Explanation: When a question asks you to convert passive voice to active voice and preserve the sequence of events, you need to juggle two tasks simultaneously: identify who is doing what, and ensure the timeline is logically accurate using proper verb tense (often the past perfect "had + past participle" to signal which action came first). In the original sentence, two events occur: (1) inspectors confirm dates, then (2) coordinator sends the revised schedule. The inspectors' confirmation happens first, so it should be expressed in the past perfect ("had confirmed"), while the coordinator's sending is the later action in simple past ("sent"). Active voice means each subject performs its own verb directly — no "was sent by" or "had been confirmed by." Choice D does exactly this: "After the inspectors had confirmed the dates, the coordinator sent each contractor a revised schedule." Both clauses use active voice, and the past perfect correctly flags the inspectors' action as the earlier event. That's your answer. Choice A reverses the sequence entirely, implying the coordinator sent the schedule before the inspectors confirmed the dates — the opposite of the original meaning. Choice B gets the chronology right but misassigns the past perfect: it says the coordinator "had sent" the schedule before the inspectors "confirmed," again flipping the order. Choice C uses all active voice but swaps the actors — it wrongly makes the inspectors the ones who send the schedule, which contradicts the original passage. Study tip: When you see two past-tense events, ask yourself which happened first — that action takes the past perfect ("had + verb"). This tense distinction is a frequent trap on grammar exams.

Question 5

The unexpected delay was accounted for by the revised delivery estimate.

Which revision correctly uses active voice without changing the tense, reversing the participants, or separating the required parts of the phrasal verb?

  1. The unexpected delay accounted for the revised delivery estimate.
  2. The revised delivery estimate had accounted for the unexpected delay.
  3. The revised delivery estimate accounted for the unexpected delay. (correct answer)
  4. The revised delivery estimate accounted the unexpected delay for.
Explanation: When converting a passive sentence to active voice, you need to identify three things: who or what is performing the action (the agent), what is receiving the action (the object), and whether the original tense is preserved. In the original sentence, "the revised delivery estimate" is the agent buried in a "by" phrase, and "the unexpected delay" is the subject receiving the action. The phrasal verb here is "accounted for" — these two words must stay together as a unit. Choice C correctly restructures the sentence by promoting "the revised delivery estimate" to subject position, keeping the simple past tense verb "accounted for" intact, and placing "the unexpected delay" as the object — all without disturbing any of the original constraints. Choice A fails because it reverses the participants: it makes "the unexpected delay" the one doing the accounting, which flips the original meaning entirely. Choice B uses "had accounted for," which shifts the tense from simple past to past perfect — a clear violation of the no-tense-change rule. Choice D separates the phrasal verb by inserting "the unexpected delay" between "accounted" and "for," breaking the verb apart. Phrasal verbs like "account for," "look into," or "carry out" must be kept together when they function as a single semantic unit with a direct object following the complete phrase. Your strategy tip: before rewriting passive sentences, underline the phrasal verb and circle the agent. Confirm your revised sentence preserves both the tense and the intact phrasal verb — those are the two most common traps in active/passive conversion questions.

Question 6

The bridge was believed by the engineers to have been weakened by repeated flooding.

Which active-voice revision most accurately preserves both levels of agency and the fact that the weakening preceded the engineers' belief?

  1. Repeated flooding believed that the engineers had weakened the bridge.
  2. The engineers had believed that repeated flooding was weakening the bridge.
  3. The engineers believed that repeated flooding weakened the bridge before they noticed it.
  4. The engineers believed that repeated flooding had weakened the bridge. (correct answer)
Explanation: When converting a passive-voice sentence to active voice, you need to track two things simultaneously: who performs each action and when each action occurs relative to the other. The original sentence contains two embedded events — the engineers believing something, and the flooding weakening the bridge — and the weakening happened before the belief formed. That temporal relationship must survive the conversion. In the original, "to have been weakened" uses the perfect infinitive, signaling that the weakening preceded the believing. In active voice, you represent that prior action with the past perfect ("had weakened"), which places one past event before another past event. Option D does exactly this: "The engineers believed that repeated flooding had weakened the bridge." The engineers are correctly identified as the believers, repeated flooding is correctly identified as the weakener, and "had weakened" preserves the earlier-past relationship. D is your answer. Now for the traps. Option A is nonsensical — it makes flooding the agent of believing and engineers the agents of weakening, which reverses both roles entirely. Option B uses "had believed," shifting the perfect tense onto the wrong verb; it implies the belief happened further in the past, but the sentence says nothing about the belief being prior to anything — it's the weakening that was prior. Option B also uses "was weakening" (progressive), which implies the flooding was ongoing at the time of belief, not completed before it. Option C uses simple past "weakened" instead of past perfect, losing the crucial sequence — and the phrase "before they noticed it" introduces information not present in the original. Study tip: When a passive sentence contains a perfect infinitive ("to have been done"), that's your signal to use past perfect in the active revision to preserve the time sequence.

Question 7

The final authorization can be granted only by the ethics board.

Which active-voice revision preserves the original restriction that no person or group other than the ethics board may grant the authorization?

  1. The ethics board can grant only the final authorization.
  2. Only the ethics board can grant the final authorization. (correct answer)
  3. The ethics board alone has granted the final authorization.
  4. The final authorization can grant only the ethics board.
Explanation: When converting passive voice to active voice, your job isn't just to flip the grammatical structure — you must also preserve every logical restriction in the original sentence. Here, the passive construction "can be granted only by the ethics board" contains a limiting word ("only") that restricts who may act. Your revision must keep that same restriction intact. Choice B, "Only the ethics board can grant the final authorization," does exactly this. The word "only" modifies the subject, clearly stating that no other person or group holds this authority. The restriction is preserved perfectly, and the sentence is now active voice. Choice A, "The ethics board can grant only the final authorization," shifts the restriction entirely. Now "only" limits what the ethics board can grant, not who can grant it — implying other groups might also grant authorization, which contradicts the original meaning. Choice C, "The ethics board alone has granted the final authorization," introduces two problems: it changes "can grant" (expressing possibility or permission) to "has granted" (past perfect), altering the sentence's tense and meaning. It also implies the action has already happened rather than describing an ongoing rule. Choice D, "The final authorization can grant only the ethics board," is nonsensical — authorization cannot grant anything, so this reverses subject and object in a logically incoherent way. A good strategy: whenever you revise sentence structure, underline any restricting words like only, never, always, or alone, and check that your revision keeps them modifying the same element as the original.

Question 8

The revised terms should have been disclosed to the tenants by the landlord before the leases were signed.

Which revision places responsibility on the landlord through active voice, preserves the modal-perfect meaning, and leaves the signer of the leases unspecified?

  1. The landlord should disclose the revised terms to the tenants before the leases had been signed.
  2. The landlord should have disclosed the revised terms to the tenants before the leases were signed. (correct answer)
  3. The tenants should have disclosed the revised terms to the landlord before the leases were signed.
  4. The landlord should have been disclosing the revised terms before the tenants signed the leases.
Explanation: When a question asks you to rewrite a passive sentence in active voice while preserving specific grammatical features, you need to check three things simultaneously: voice, verb tense/mood, and which nouns are specified or left open. The original sentence uses a modal perfect passive: "should have been disclosed." To convert this to active voice, the agent ("the landlord") moves to subject position, and the verb becomes the modal perfect active: "should have disclosed." This construction preserves the meaning that an obligation existed in the past but went unfulfilled — the hallmark of modal perfect aspect. Answer B does exactly this: "The landlord should have disclosed the revised terms to the tenants before the leases were signed." The landlord is the responsible agent (active voice), "should have disclosed" retains the modal-perfect meaning, and "the leases were signed" leaves the signer unspecified — a passive construction used deliberately here. Answer A fails on two counts: "should disclose" is a simple modal, not a modal perfect, so it loses the past-unfulfilled obligation meaning. It also uses "had been signed," which shifts the timeline unnecessarily. Answer C is grammatically correct but reverses the roles — it places responsibility on the tenants rather than the landlord, which contradicts the original meaning entirely. Answer D uses "should have been disclosing," a modal perfect progressive, which implies an ongoing action rather than a completed disclosure obligation — subtly wrong in aspect and awkward in context. Your strategy: when converting voice, verify all three features — subject, verb form, and any deliberately unspecified nouns — before selecting your answer.

Question 9

It was recommended by the review panel that the agency retain the records until the inquiry was completed.

Which revision makes the main clause active while preserving the recommendation's mandative mood and leaving the inquiry's completing agent unspecified?

  1. The review panel recommended that the agency retain the records until the inquiry was completed. (correct answer)
  2. The review panel recommended that the agency retained the records until the inquiry was completed.
  3. The review panel has recommended that the agency would retain the records until the inquiry was completed.
  4. The agency recommended that the review panel retain the records until the inquiry was completed.
Explanation: When a question asks you to make a clause "active" while preserving a specific mood, you need to track two separate grammatical features simultaneously: voice (active vs. passive) and mood (indicative vs. mandative subjunctive). The original sentence uses a passive main clause ("It was recommended by the review panel") and a mandative subjunctive in the subordinate clause ("that the agency retain"). The mandative subjunctive is the base form of the verb used after verbs like recommend, require, or insist to express necessity — crucially, it doesn't add -s for third person singular and doesn't shift to past tense. Notice that "retain" (not "retains" or "retained") signals this mood. The inquiry's completing agent stays unspecified because "was completed" remains passive, which the question correctly preserves. Choice A flips the main clause to active ("The review panel recommended") while keeping "retain" in the mandative subjunctive — exactly what the question demands. This is the correct answer. Choice B uses "retained" in the subordinate clause, which is simple past indicative, not mandative subjunctive. This destroys the obligatory sense of the recommendation and changes meaning entirely. Choice C introduces "would retain," which shifts the subordinate clause into a conditional/modal construction — grammatically incompatible with mandative subjunctive and semantically imprecise for a formal recommendation. Choice D reverses the roles of the two parties: now the agency is recommending to the review panel, which inverts the original meaning and makes the revision factually wrong regardless of grammar. Your strategy: whenever you see recommend/require/insist + that, check the verb in the subordinate clause — it should be the bare base form (subjunctive), not inflected or paired with a modal.

Question 10

Before the external audit began, the backup files had been encrypted by the IT staff, and the access codes were being stored by the compliance officer.

Which revision changes both passive constructions to active voice while preserving their original tense and aspect?

  1. Before the external audit began, the IT staff encrypted the backup files, and the compliance officer stored the access codes.
  2. Before the external audit began, the backup files had encrypted the IT staff, and the access codes were storing the compliance officer.
  3. Before the external audit began, the IT staff had encrypted the backup files, and the compliance officer was storing the access codes. (correct answer)
  4. Before the external audit began, the IT staff were encrypting the backup files, and the compliance officer had stored the access codes.
Explanation: When converting passive voice to active voice, you need to do two things simultaneously: flip the subject and object (making the agent the subject), and preserve the exact tense and aspect of the original verb. This question tests whether you can do both at once. Look at the original sentence carefully. The first clause uses past perfect ("had been encrypted") — indicating an action completed before another past event. The second clause uses past progressive ("were being stored") — indicating an ongoing action at a past moment. Any correct revision must maintain these two distinct tense-aspect combinations while making the agent (IT staff, compliance officer) the grammatical subject performing the action. Choice C does exactly this: "the IT staff had encrypted" preserves the past perfect, and "the compliance officer was storing" preserves the past progressive. The agents become subjects, the objects remain objects, and neither tense shifts. That's your answer. Choice A fails because both verbs ("encrypted," "stored") are simple past tense — correct active voice, but wrong tense-aspect. It loses the past perfect and past progressive entirely. Choice B is grammatically nonsensical. It technically flips the subjects and objects, but assigns impossible roles: backup files cannot encrypt IT staff, and access codes cannot store a compliance officer. This represents a mechanical but meaningless reversal. Choice D swaps the tense-aspect assignments. It gives the IT staff the past progressive ("were encrypting") and the compliance officer the past perfect ("had stored") — exactly backwards from the original. Study tip: When revising passive to active, write out the tense name first ("past perfect," "past progressive"), then reconstruct — don't just rewrite instinctively, or you'll swap tenses without noticing.