Active / Passive
In my day job I sometimes need to check other people’s written English for accuracy and clarity. One common stylistic change that I often suggest is to rephrase in the active voice. In my view, English-users often use the passive voice where the active would be clearer, particularly where the passive is used incompletely.
For example: ‘You were told x y z’.
In my opinion, in reporting facts, this is a poor structure because it does not say who told ‘you’ x y z, i.e. it is incomplete. The writer could render it complete thus: ‘You were told x y z by your doctor’. However, this too is a poor structure because there is no reason to put these facts in the passive voice.
The preferred option would be: ‘Your doctor told you x y z’. This makes it clear that it was the doctor who did the telling, that it was you whom he told, and that he told you x y z.
That said, the passive may be appropriate, for example if the writer doesn’t know the identity of the active subject (the doctor), or for narrative effect, e.g. ‘The cat was sick of being chased all day by the mouse’ is more effective than ‘The mouse chased the cat all day and the cat was sick of this’. Or occasionally it may be appropriate to use the passive in order deliberately to conceal facts (where ambiguity is the purpose of communication, which should be seldom).
I’ve already looked at some of the previous posts of Spanishdict relating to the passive in Spanish and note that it can be rendered using ‘se + indicative verb’, or ‘ser + past participle’ or even ‘estar + past participle’.
My questions are as follows:
- How common are the ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ forms ?
- Does the passive lead to the same kind of confusion as in English ?
- Should the past participle be made to agree with the passive subject if feminine or plural ?
7 Answers
My sense about this is that both Spanish and English have a degree of vagueness when the passive voice is used. I too was taught in Business English that it is best to avoid the passive voice. In my work as a chemical analyst however I often used the passive in my Lab notebook write-ups to avoid say "I did this" over and over. I would often write something like: "a layer of insoluble material appeared after mixing."
In addition the passive voice is a favorite among politicians with phrases like: "Mistakes were made," rather than "We (or I) made mistakes."
I can imagine similar usages in Spanish. We love our native speakers, but most of them are not necessarily experts in formal written Spanish.
•Does the passive lead to the same kind of confusion as in English? and •Should the past participle be made to agree with the passive subject if feminine or plural I try to answer both question using your example:
You were told x y z
I think that is not possible in Spanish, because the verb will show you who told xyz to you:
Te dijeron x y z: The verb shows you that "Ellos" told you xyz.
Te dijo x y z: The verb shows you that "El/ella" told you xyz.
Te dije x y z: The verb shows you that "Yo" told you xyzt.
Te dijimos x y z: The verb shows you that "Nosotros" told you xyz.
Te dijiste x y z: The verb shows you that "youself" told you xyz.
So, in Spanish the subject must be always present in the sentence. This can appear as real subject or through the verb if the subject is omitted. The only exception are the impersona sentences, but they do not have relation with the passive voice:
Hoy llueve
Prohibido fumar
As Manity said, also is possible in legal documents or legislation
Jubilado's post makes an important point. Shifting the blame is an area where Spanish seems to prefers the passive voice: "se me olvidó", "se me rompió". It's not that such a structure actually creates ambiguity but it sort of softens the edges.
Regarding decir, an expression in the passive that it's commonly used (I think) is "se dice". I'm not sure whether this can be classified as "true" passive, there was something fishy about these 'se' constructions and I don't quite get the difference between "impersonal se" and "passive se". As Txustaboy says, it's not easy to use decir in the passive the way it's normally formed, with ser/estar + past participle.
Regarding how common the ser and estar forms are, from what I've seen so far it seems to me that 'se' constructions (be it impersonal or passive se) often win over ser/estar + past participle. I could be wrong about this or perhaps there are certain verbs or constructions that favor one of these ways over the other but that's my overall impression.
In English or in Spanish sometimes the source is important and sometimes not. So I am not sure that using the active voice is clearer than the passive. If you want to emphasize that clearly you knew. Then the "from who" is not important and the passive emphasizes the action not the source. If the source is important the active emphasizes the source more than the message. Both can be appropriate.
Well, as always, from my ignorant point of view, I think all in context can be justified for mostly any form, especially when it has been used for ages, but now seems to be "unhip" or whatever...
You were told not to do this or that, but you chose to do it anyway.
I am talking to anybody and I don't know who told the guy/guys about not doing it, so according to you guys, if I don't know who advised the guy/guys I cannot say anything, really!
On the other hand, if I know who made the rule or whatever, then I cannot say "you were told (by this guy)...." I must use " He told you not to ...."
Really!?!?
I am sorry, but I would like to keep my ignorance as blissful as I can.
Thanks.
Edit: to finish what I said in my comment to Jubilado.
I don't know, Sir.
What do you mean "I don't know", I don't ever want you saying that again.
Ok Sir! It isn't within my knowledge, Sir!
Ah! that's much better....
Really???!!! That sounds so intelligent and professional.
:D
Edit: (I am the district manager)
You were given special instructions about this.
No Sir. That never happened.
You mean to tell me nobody gave you the Employee Handbook while in Employee Orientation? (I don't know who did the presentation and I am assuming he went through the motions of New Hires)
What part of that is not clear?
Now, same thing in Castilian.
The passive voice was designed specifically for use by politicians and lawyers.
No names no pack drill 
The fewer specifics the better.
"It has been said that politicians and lawyers never tell lies."
"Really? Who said that?"
"I couldn't possibly say."
I see no confusion because of the passive voice.
I see a lot of obfuscation and "backside" covering though.
Spanish is very neat though at shifting blame.
The older I get the more things seem to drop themselves out of my hands.
Awkward in English but possible in Spanish.
Maybe like this.
Cuanto más viejo me hago más cosas parecen caerse fuera de mis manos.
Thanks for all your answers, amigos. I think I have a better insight into this now 
Although I'm still not clear on whether the pp should agree...
