Passive Voice and Direct/Indirect Speech
Two dilemmas facing me now regarding this subject.
1) I have a common habit of structuring sentences in English such as "I have been taught English" and I use two past participles together. I've never been taught how to structure this kind of sentence in Spanish but I'm assuming to translate it literally as "He sido enseñado inglés" is incorrect or not understandable. Any ways to get around this structure?
2) I've been taught to avoid the 'ser' + agreeing past participle (e.g. Fueron dados los documentos.) in spoken language because it's rare and that I should use "se" and the third person EXCEPT when followed by the word 'por' in which it would be the 'ser' construction, hopefully I'm right so far yes? However, I was told that it is possible to use 'estar' + past participle to indicate a completed action? (e.g. La puerta es cerrada = the door is closing) and (e.g. La puerta ya está cerrada = The door is closed) ["ya" being an optional word to input into this sentence to reinforce the message]
Is it possible for someone to explain what I've said or correct me because my knowledge is poor on this topic too?
Finally I just wanted to know how popular the direct speech and indirect speech styles are, I've been told the format that is commonly used in English (e,g. He said "You are tall) is transformed into Spanish as (e.g. He said that I am tall), I think it's fairly easy to translate from one to the other style but I have heard some Spanish people use the first version before. Can anyone explain?
Best, Dylan
2 Answers
To say "I have been taught English" we say "Me han enseñado inglés". This is not passive voice, but it is still impersonal because we don´t mention who ellos is.
We can never say "la puerta es cerrada", but "está cerrada", "ya está cerrada" (already), está cerrándose (closing).
Direct reported speech is normally only used in literature in both languages.
With regard to "la puerta es cerrada." We don't hear that much in the present tense, but in the past you will hear "La puerta fue cerrado por el portero" For present tense you can say "Todos los días la puerta es cerrado por el portero." but it's not common. Note that I did not use the feminine ending, because I am not describing a "condition", which would require a feminine adjective, but rather an action by the portero.
La puerta "está cerrada" means that the door is "closed" as opposed to "open" Not that's a condition.
Now as to "reported speech" You can say, " El dijo que soy alto/a" He said that I am tall. English speakers most of the time leave out the "that" and it makes things a little confusing.
If you want to report that the person was talking about himself, use, El dijo "Soy alto."
I hope this clears up the mud a little. 
