Convert the sentence provided below from its passive voice structure to an active voice structure:
The house had been painted by the workers before the rain started.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
Correct Answer
The workers had painted the house before the rain started.
Explanation
Passive to Active Voice Rules: To convert a sentence from passive to active voice, the agent performing the action becomes the new subject, and the structural auxiliary verb used for passive voice is dropped while maintaining the original tense.
The passive sentence breaks down into a passive subject ("The house"), a passive verb phrase in the Past Perfect Passive ("had been painted"), an agent ("by the workers"), and an independent time clause ("before the rain started").
The agent "the workers" is moved to the front position to become the true active subject of the sentence.
The passive verb phrase "had been painted" indicates the Past Perfect Tense. To convert this to active voice, the auxiliary verb "been" is omitted, leaving the active Past Perfect structure: had + past participle (V3). This produces "had painted".
The original passive subject "The house" shifts behind the verb phrase to take its place as the direct object. The dependent time clause ("before the rain started") remains completely unchanged at the end of the sentence to anchor the timeline.
Assembling these components logically confirms that the first option is the only grammatically flawless transformation.
Key Points
Passive Structure Subject (The house) + had been painted + by Agent (the workers) + Time Clause
Active Structure New Subject (The workers) + had painted + Object (the house) + Time Clause
Grammatical Role Past perfect active conversion, preserving the exact sequential timeline where one past action was completed entirely before another past action began.