Active Vs Passive.

Question

My Friends and Respected community members..

I have noticed many times in many books .. that a sentence gets changed from passive voice into active after it is translated from English to Spanish.

The original English sentence is in passive but I have seen numerous instances where the Spanish translation for these is given in active ..

Please see the example below :

English Sentence : You deserve to have your merits recognized. (the noun clause starting with to is a kind of passive) Spanish Translation : Mereces que reconozcan tus meritos (now this is a sentence with two caluses and both the main clause and the subordinate noun clause starting with que where the subjunctive is used ,, are both in active voice).

If I translate the Spanish Translation back to English .. I would mean .. You deserve that they recognize your merits ..

If I were to translate this sentence I would rather have used the "SE Passive" construction and I might have said : se mereces haber reconocido tus merritos (here we don't know the agent so it is difficult to use the TRUE Passive so I used the Se passive).

Another Example :

English Sentence : My car has been stolen.. (Passive Voice In English) Spanish Translation (in the book) : Me han robado El coche ( After translation the Spanish one is given in active voice). which literally means .. They have robbed me of my car.

And there are hundreds of such examples I have in different books.

I fail to fathom as to why the translations for passive are given in active voice ..

If I were to translate this second sentence .. I would have said : Se ha robado mi coche (simply meaning .. my car has been stolen).. Does it have something to do with the style of the natives that they prefer speaking in active and introduce a new subject in the subordinate clause just for the sake of changing it into active voice or is it a mere inadvertence at the end of the book authors ?

I would appreciate any help I could get on this .. Because this really leaves my bedazzled :( ... Thanks and Regards .. Jimmy

I am already aware about how the active and passive mechanisms work and what they entail .. the only confusion I have is about the unwarranted switching over of passive to active by the book authors .. I am not sure why they do it. - 00b055e0, Mar 24, 2014

Answer 1

Because basically English uses the passive more than Spanish does and direct translation sounds awkward in many cases.

In some cases the Spanish uses structures such as : ''Me han robado'', ''me han pagado' as the norm, the sort of standard setting, when the English standard there is : I've been robbed, I've been paid. ''

To arrive at a god translation you have to avoid word by word, you have to try to use natural sounding language.

@annierats : Yes ma'am that is exactly what I was thinking that it has to do with the style adopted by native speakers. This is the drawback (inconveniente) i have that in my country no one speaks Spanish so I have zero exposure to the nativ - 00b055e0, Mar 24, 2014

so I have zero exposure to the way the natives speak .. Thanks for your help ma'am. - 00b055e0, Mar 24, 2014

but if I translate it into passive will they understand me ? (though they may think that I am a freek or a geek hahaha) - 00b055e0, Mar 24, 2014

Yes, it will just sound stilted. Please stop calling me ma'am, it is only the Queen who is spoken to in this manner. - annierats, Mar 24, 2014

And nobody speaks Spanish here either. And it's not astyle ' adopted by' native speakers. It is theri language. One doesn't adopt one's own language, one just speaks it, if you see what I mean. - annierats, Mar 24, 2014

Annie, I thought you were the Queen! - padrin, Mar 24, 2014

:) - ian-hill, Mar 24, 2014

This is good news! Obvously, I thought I was a fellow student! In Sweden we say ' du' to even the king, these days. I think. I haven't met him. Yet.g - annierats, Mar 24, 2014

ok Annie ,, thanks for the explanation ,,, but by style I just meant the way of speaking .. - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

but I get it now .. thanks my friend - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

for me all women are queens ,, just a notion of chivalry .. a true man should always bow down before a woman out of courtesy ,, my dad taught me that when I was little. - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

Nice job Annie :) - Kiwi-Girl, Mar 25, 2014

Answer 2

@actorgirl.....read the following

I will tell you when it is mostly used among the natives.. heed the following

1. When the agent is not important to the context .. for example .. los libros son vendidos aquí (por el tendero).... now the agent of the passive sentence mentioned in the brackets has been omitted because it is quite obvious that the shopkeeper (tenbdero) sells the books in his shop .. so here the passive voice is a better choice both in English and in Spanish ..

2. Where the agent is not known : like .. mi coche fue golpeado ( no sé por quién) My car was hit (I don't know by who) or se golpeó mi coche. ( the se passive ,, but the logic stays the same). Now in this case we don't know who hit my car ,, so I can either use an indefinite subject like some body or some one if I am too fond of active voice and say that some one hit my car ... or I can resort to passive and omit the agent/doer of the action and simply say .. my car was hit.

3. Where I delibrately want to conceal the identity of the subject (either because he or she is classified confidential or he or she may have done some thing wrong so I dont want to reveal his identity or for any other reason I delibrately want to keep the subject hidden) .. for example the president of some country playing safe in his address to the nation .. he may say .. dos personas se mataron en la manifestación ayer/ two people were killed in the protest yesterday ,, ( he doesnt want to say who did the killing as the order to fire may have been passed by the govt. To disperse the crowd .. so he choses to use the passive and save his image ...

Hope you understand it now,, Regards.

but in all the examples I have quoted above ,,they would normally use the SE passive ,, I have used the TRUE PASSIVE just so u could understand - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

Answer 3

This one is for you my dear friend(actorgirl):

In English : my friend actor girl eats sandwiches. (Active voice) In Spanish : mi amiga actor girl come bocadillas (Active voice)

The above examples are in active voice ,,, because the subject (actor girl) is directly doing the action of eating the sandwiches (which is the object) .. so the action is flowing in the natural order from the subject through the transitive verb COMER to the object ....

Now if we reverse the flow of the action it will become passive ,, where the sandwich will become the passive subject and actorgirl will now be the agent of the passive clause,

See how it changes to the passive now:

The sandwhiches are eaten by actorgirl, my friend.(passive in English) Las bocadillas son comidas por actorgirl (true passive).. Or se comen las bocadillas ( se passive)..

For now leave the se passive as u are allready confused ,, just go one step at a time ..

Hope you understand it now.

I think so. Thanks Jimmy! - actorgirl, Mar 25, 2014

you are always welcome - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

Answer 4

I am very confused. I already have enough trouble with my English passive and active, how will I ever get the Spanish down!!??!!!

Are you saying that passive is really not used, or not used at all in Spanish?

Sorry, I am feeling rather dumb here.

no my dear ,, it is used quite frequently ,, especially the se passive - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

huh? - actorgirl, Mar 25, 2014

I am even more confused now! - actorgirl, Mar 25, 2014

in spanish there are two kinds of passive constructions, the true passive and the say passive, I think the true passive is rarely used in usual conversations ,, but the Se passive is quite frequently used - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

I mean ,,, Se passive (typo error) - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

wat is the confusion .. tell me - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

ok .. let me give u an example.. - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014

I don't exactly know what the confusion is. I am just thoroughly confused on this whole passive and active thing. - actorgirl, Mar 25, 2014

read my explanation below - 00b055e0, Mar 25, 2014