Help with Passive Voice

Question

I was wandering if someone could tell me the difference between these 2 sentences:
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¨A ella la llamaron a tiempo.¨ versus ¨Se llamó a tiempo a ella.¨ ................................................................................................................................ The first one is written in 3rd person plural and I know it is correct because it is the example my professor gave us. I just don´t understand why the sentence couldn´t be written like the other way I wrote it as well (maybe it can?) ................................................................................................................................ Are the sentences implying different things? Although neither of these sentences have/emphasize a subject, is the first one implying that if someone, for whatever reason, wanted to know who called her they could find out. And the second sentence is implying that ¨they¨ (in a generic sense) called her and you could not specify who called her if you wanted to. ................................................................................................................................. My main question is, Are the 2 sentences at the top both written correctly? If so, what is the difference between them, if any. If the second one is incorrect, then why can it not be written that way? ............................................................................................................................... Sorry if this is a really confusing question, please let me know if I need to explain it in a different way.Thanks

Welcome to the forum! - rac1, Sep 23, 2012

Answer 1

A ella la llamaron a tiempo (active voice) sounds correct. Your passive voice does not sound right. I would say: "Ella fue llamada a tiempo".

¨A ella la llamaron a tiempo¨ is passive voice not active voice. ¨Ella¨ is the direct object not the subject. The sentence is saying ¨She was called on time¨ ...there is no specific subject in the sentence, it is just the generic ¨they¨ . - mlong38, Sep 22, 2012

Passive voice requires a subject + to be + verb in past participle - francobollo, Sep 23, 2012

Forgive me, but I actually believe that "a ella la llamaron a tiempo" is the active voice, just rearranged slightly to emphasize the object, rather than the actor. But, I believe it is still in the active voice, as it does not use "se" or a form of "ser" - Maxwell_R, Sep 23, 2012

It is not in the active voice because there is no specific subject. - mlong38, Oct 5, 2012

Answer 2

I think that the second sentence, in order for it to mean the same thing as "a ella la llamaron a tiempo", it would have to be written "Ella fue llamada por ellos" (She is called by them, passive voice)

Se llamó ella means she called herself. Se llamó a ella sounds awkward (Se le llamó sounds better but it uses the indirect object pronoun). - francobollo, Sep 23, 2012

Thanks, you're right, I wasn't thinking - Maxwell_R, Sep 23, 2012