---
title: Ascertain the passive form, in the identical tense, of the sentence… — Active and passive voice, modal verbs · tree and pragmatics
description: Ascertain the passive form, in the identical tense, of the sentence "The dog ate the cake". Exam question 2 of lesson 32 «Active and passive voice, modal verbs» of the English course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice w
---

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# Exam question 2 · Active and passive voice, modal verbs

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ascertain the passive form, in the identical tense, of the sentence "The dog ate the cake".

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** you, dog · **What happens:** ascertain, eat · **To what, where:** passive form, identical tense, cake · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 2 of lesson 32 «Active and passive voice, modal verbs» of the English course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs:e2:1
# text = Ascertain the passive form, in the identical tense, of the sentence "The dog ate the cake".
1	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	passive	passive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	identical	identical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	tense	tense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ascertain** | imperative | you *not said here* | the passive form |  | the identical tense and the sentence |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent form=Topic |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | past | the dog | the cake |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cake=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cake is eaten by the dog.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs:e2:o1:1
# text = The cake is eaten by the dog.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | present · passive | the dog | the cake |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cake will be eaten by the dog.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs:e2:o2:1
# text = The cake will be eaten by the dog.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | future · passive | the dog | the cake |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cake was eaten by the dog.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs:e2:o3:1
# text = The cake was eaten by the dog.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · passive | the dog | the cake |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cake has been eating by the dog.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs:e2:o4:1
# text = The cake has been eating by the dog.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	aux	_	_
5	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | present · perfect · progressive | the cake |  |  |  |  | by the dog | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

<!-- /div -->

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- next →: [Active and passive voice, modal verbs, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/e3/)
- ↑ back to [Active and passive voice, modal verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/)