5. Common Errors in Voice Conversion

Below are the errors that recur most often in aspirant writing and in exam distractor options. Each entry gives the wrong form, the fix, and a one-line explanation. Study this section as a checklist to run through mentally before finalising any passive-voice answer. This edition expands the original catalogue of 21 traps to 35, adding fourteen further failure patterns drawn from causatives, reported speech, quasi-passives, and register mismatches — all areas this guide now covers in more depth than before.

Error 1 — Wrong auxiliary tense (mismatching the "be" verb to the wrong tense) Wrong: The report was being submit by the intern. (should mirror past continuous) Fix: The report was being submitted by the intern. The auxiliary tense must always mirror the tense of the original active sentence; here the participle "submitted" was left in base form.

Error 2 — Missing "being" in continuous tenses Wrong: The road is repaired right now. Fix: The road is being repaired right now. Dropping "being" silently converts a continuous (in-progress) passive into a simple-present passive, changing the meaning.

Error 3 — Missing "been" in perfect tenses Wrong: The files have deleted by the admin. Fix: The files have been deleted by the admin. "Been" marks the perfect passive; without it the sentence is neither correctly active nor correctly passive.

Error 4 — Confusing "being" and "been" Wrong: The order has being processed. Fix: The order has been processed. "Being" belongs to continuous passives; "been" belongs to perfect passives — they are never interchangeable.

Error 5 — Incorrectly passivizing an intransitive verb Wrong: It was slept by the baby for ten hours. Fix: The baby slept for ten hours. (no passive form exists — "sleep" takes no object) Only transitive verbs (verbs with a direct object) can be passivized; intransitive verbs like sleep, arrive, happen, occur, die, fall have no passive form.

Error 6 — Wrong preposition after certain passive verbs (e.g. "surprised at/by," "satisfied with," "known for") Wrong: She was surprised with the sudden announcement. Fix: She was surprised at/by the sudden announcement. Several past-participle adjectives take fixed prepositions that don't follow the default "by" pattern: interested in, satisfied with, known for, pleased with, disappointed with/in, married to, associated with, composed of. These must be memorised individually, not derived by rule.

Error 7 — Dropping the "by-agent" when it is actually essential information Wrong: The Nobel Prize was awarded. (when the sentence's entire point was to name the laureate's discoverer) Fix: The Nobel Prize was awarded to Dr. Rao by the Swedish Academy. The agent should be kept when it carries new, important, or specifically asked-for information — not automatically dropped just because passive voice permits omission.

Error 8 — Keeping the "by-agent" when it should be dropped (obvious, generic, or unknown agent) Wrong: My wallet was stolen by someone. Fix: My wallet was stolen. When the agent is unknown, irrelevant, or a generic "people/someone/they," it is more natural — and often required for a "best" MCQ answer — to omit the "by" phrase entirely.

Error 9 — Double passive errors (passivizing twice in one clause) Wrong: The problem was tried to be solved by the team. Fix: An attempt was made by the team to solve the problem. / The team tried to solve the problem. When a sentence has a "verb + infinitive" structure (try to solve, want to finish, decide to publish), only one of the two verbs can typically be passivized cleanly, and often neither should be — restructure instead of stacking two passive markers.

Error 10 — Wrong pronoun case after conversion Wrong: The award was given to they by the jury. Fix: The award was given to them by the jury. Subject pronouns (he, she, they, we) must switch to object pronouns (him, her, them, us) when they move into the "by" phrase or any object position.

Error 11 — Failing to shift word order in question passives Wrong: Who was invited by the manager to the meeting? left as The manager was invited who to the meeting? Fix: Who was invited to the meeting by the manager? Interrogative passives must retain question word order — auxiliary before subject — not simply graft passive verb forms onto a declarative order.

Error 12 — Forgetting "to" before the bare infinitive after perception verbs Wrong: The thief was seen climb the wall. Fix: The thief was seen to climb the wall. See Section 4.4 — bare infinitives after perception verbs (see, hear, watch, notice) gain "to" in the passive.

Error 13 — Incorrect handling of two-object sentences (wrong preposition or wrong object promoted) Wrong: A certificate was given the winner. (missing "to") Fix: A certificate was given to the winner. When the direct object (not the person) is promoted to subject, the indirect object needs its preposition ("to" or "for") restored.

Error 14 — Treating modal + "have" constructions like simple modals Wrong: The letter should sent earlier by him. Fix: The letter should have been sent earlier by him. When the active sentence expresses past obligation/possibility with "modal + have + V3," the passive must carry the full "modal + have been + V3" chain, not a truncated "modal + V3."

Error 15 — Passivizing quasi-passive/stative verbs Wrong: Two elder sisters are had by him. Fix: He has two elder sisters. (stays active — see Section 4.7's expanded list) Verbs describing states, possession, or resemblance (have, resemble, suit, cost, lack) cannot be passivized under any tense.

Error 16 — Wrong number agreement between the new subject and "be" Wrong: The keys was found under the mat. Fix: The keys were found under the mat. The passive "be" verb must agree with the new (promoted) subject, not the number of the original subject/agent.

Error 17 — Using "by" where "with" is correct (instrument vs. agent confusion) Wrong: The wound was bandaged by a clean cloth. Fix: The wound was bandaged with a clean cloth. "By" introduces the doer (a person or an active force); "with" introduces the tool/instrument used. Confusing the two is a very common but subtle error — "by the nurse" (agent) vs "with a bandage" (instrument), and both can appear in the same sentence: "The wound was bandaged by the nurse with a clean cloth."

Error 18 — Retaining active-voice time expressions or adverb placement incorrectly Wrong: Yesterday were the accounts audited by the firm. Fix: The accounts were audited by the firm yesterday. Time adverbs generally keep their natural end-of-sentence (or occasionally front) position in the passive too — but the subject–auxiliary order of a declarative sentence must not be disturbed by moving a time expression to the front unless it's a deliberate, well-formed fronting.

Error 19 — Applying "let + be + V3" to non-command sentences Wrong (misapplying imperative passive to a statement): Let the file be reviewed by the manager tomorrow. used to translate The manager will review the file tomorrow (a plain future statement, not a command). Fix: The file will be reviewed by the manager tomorrow. The "Let + O + be + V3" structure is reserved specifically for converting commands/imperatives — using it for a plain declarative sentence is a category error, not just a style slip.

Error 20 — Missing tense-shift inside a reported infinitive Wrong: The bridge is said to build two centuries ago. Fix: The bridge is said to have been built two centuries ago. When the reported action happened before the time of the reporting verb, the infinitive must become a perfect infinitive ("to have been + V3"), as covered in Section 4.5 — a plain "to + V1" wrongly implies the action is simultaneous with or after the reporting.

Error 21 — Passivizing reflexive/reciprocal-only actions Wrong: Each other was hugged by the old friends. Fix: The old friends hugged each other. Sentences built around reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another) as the object generally resist smooth passivization and are best left active.

Error 22 — Force-passivizing a causative "have/get...done" sentence Wrong: The roof is had repaired by the landlord every monsoon. Fix: The landlord has the roof repaired every monsoon. (already correct as a causative — do not passivize further) As covered in Section 4.9, "have/get + object + V3" is already a complete active-voice causative; attempting to passivize "have" or "get" itself produces an ungrammatical sentence.

Error 23 — Collapsing a causative into a simple passive and losing the arranged-action meaning Wrong (loses meaning, though grammatically fine on its own): The car was serviced. used to replace She had the car serviced. Fix: She had the car serviced. (retain the causative if the original implied deliberate arrangement) A simple passive says only that the action happened to the object; it drops the information that the subject specifically commissioned it — a meaning-changing error, not just a stylistic one.

Error 24 — Failing to back-shift the passive auxiliary inside reported speech Wrong: The clerk said that the file is being processed. Fix: The clerk said that the file was being processed. As covered in Section 4.8, when a passive clause is embedded inside reported speech, its "be" auxiliary must undergo the same tense back-shift as any other verb (is→was, has been→had been), not remain frozen in its original tense.

Error 25 — Wrongly converting an already-passive reported clause into active voice Wrong: He said that they had sent the file to the head office. used to report the original direct speech "The file has been sent to the head office." Fix: He said that the file had been sent to the head office. If the original quoted sentence was already passive, the reported version must remain passive (correctly back-shifted) — inventing an active subject that wasn't present in the original changes who is being credited with the action.

Error 26 — Omitting the subjunctive "be" in reported advice/recommendation structures Wrong: The doctor advised that the tablet was taken twice a day. Fix: The doctor advised that the tablet be taken twice a day. Verbs of recommendation and command in reported speech (advise, recommend, suggest, insist, demand) take a bare subjunctive form ("be taken," not "was/is taken") in the that-clause, even when the clause is passive.

Error 27 — Passivizing "consist of / comprise" style verbs Wrong: Five members are consisted of by the committee. Fix: The committee consists of five members. As covered in the expanded Section 4.7 list, "consist of" and "comprise" describe composition, a state, and never take the passive.

Error 28 — Wrong verb form after "get" in a "get"-passive Wrong: The window got broke during the storm. Fix: The window got broken during the storm. The "get" passive still requires the true past participle (V3) after "get," not the simple past form (V2) — a very common spoken-English slip that is penalised in formal written exams.

Error 29 — Using "get" passives in formal/administrative register Wrong (in an official notice): All pending dues get cleared by the 5th of every month. Fix: All pending dues are cleared by the 5th of every month. "Get" passives are appropriate to informal or conversational registers; formal notices, circulars, and administrative writing should default to "be" passives (see Section 6).

Error 30 — Treating "by whom" and "whom" as interchangeable in agent questions Wrong: Whom was this letter written? (attempting to ask who the agent was, without "by") Fix: By whom was this letter written? When the question specifically asks about the agent (the doer), the preposition "by" must be retained before "whom" — dropping it produces a sentence that reads as asking about the object/recipient instead.

Error 31 — Incorrect participle form (irregular verbs) Wrong: The cheque was wrote by the accountant. Fix: The cheque was written by the accountant. Irregular verbs (write/wrote/written, break/broke/broken, choose/chose/chosen, forget/forgot/forgotten) require the true V3 participle in the passive, never the simple-past V2 form — this is a vocabulary gap disguised as a grammar error, and worth a dedicated irregular-verbs revision list alongside this guide.

Error 32 — Misplacing the negative in a modal passive Wrong: The invoice must be not verified before payment. Fix: The invoice must not be verified before payment. In modal passives, "not" attaches directly after the modal, before "be" — "must not be verified," never "must be not verified."

Error 33 — Attempting to passivize verbs of "becoming" or "seeming" used as linking verbs Wrong: A doctor was become by her after years of study. Fix: She became a doctor after years of study. Linking verbs (become, seem, appear, look, remain, stay when used to connect subject and complement rather than describe an action on an object) never take the passive, because there is no object being acted upon — only a complement describing the subject.

Error 34 — Dropping "to" from the direct object side in two-object passives Wrong: A trophy was awarded best performer by the trainer. Fix: A trophy was awarded to the best performer by the trainer. As covered in Section 4.3, when the direct object (the thing) is promoted to subject instead of the person, the preposition before the remaining indirect object ("to" or "for") must be restored — it is silent in the active double-object form but becomes obligatory once that word order changes.

Error 35 — Treating a passive sentence with an omitted agent as incomplete or ungrammatical Wrong assumption (leads to over-correction): adding "by someone/by people" unnecessarily to every passive sentence, producing The results were declared by the authority concerned. when the original, complete, and stylistically correct sentence was simply The results were declared. Fix: Recognise that a passive sentence with no "by-agent" is often the grammatically complete and preferred form, not a fragment needing repair — over-correcting by force-adding a vague agent is itself an error, particularly common among aspirants who have over-learned "always mention the agent" without learning the exceptions in Error 8.

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