Help with La Voz Pasiva
In this question I have to find which sentence that is an example of the Los Pasiva. I am really confused please help me!! I think the answer is D but I am not sure.
a. Fuimos a Europa b. Europa tiene una historia de muchos conflictos. c. La Unión Europea estuvo formado. d. Europa es un continente con mucha historia.
4 Answers
Alisha:
Ser passive is formed by using a conjugated form of ser followed by a past participle of the verb that describes what is happening or happened in the past.
C. La Unión Europea estuvo formado
The above sentence is close to this structure, but is using the verb estuvo (from estar) I believe the verb should be fue (third person preterite of ser) in order for it to be true passive voice. Nevertheless, since you already took a guess, I will tell you that C. is the answer you are looking for. (not 100% correct, but much better than the others)
None of the other sentences come anywhere close to being passive voice.
Some people confuse estar with ser and say that both can be used in the passive voice. It is not technically correct to call a sentence with estar + past participle passive voice.
With estar it just means that "it was formed"...it is like using formado as an adjective but referring to a time in the past that it was in this condition. It isn't using the passive voice to restate a previously active sentence... 10 countries formed the UE in XXXX.
The true ser passive would say the "it was formed" meaning that at some time in the past someone or some countries did the work to form the European Union. (but the passive voice doesn't have to mention who did it.)
I hope this helps. It is always a little annoying when the materials that you are studying have errors. But, hey, nobody is perfect.
Here is an example of a sentence which would use estaba (estar) in Spanish. "Formed" is acting as an adjective, referring to the status of the UE in the past.
The UE was already formed when the Soviet Union collapsed. (it was already in existence...formed is acting as an adjective to describe the status of the UE at that time)
Here is an example of a true passive sentence which would use fue (ser):
The UE was formed seven years prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This sentence focuses on the action of forming the UE seven years prior.
The active version of this sentence is:
The member states of the UE formed the union seven years prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The above examples are not meant to be historically accurate, they are only sample sentences to show the difference between estar, ser passive and active voice.
Spanish has two ways to form the passive voice: using "se" (e.g. se formó) or "ser + participio" (e.g. fue formado). Many grammars don't consider "estar + participio" a true passive construction, but a periphrasis, even though it expresses a similar idea. While "ser + participio" expresses both the action and the outcome, and it can take an optional actor (fue formado por una comisión), "estar + participio" only expresses the outcome, and it can't take an optional actor.
Wow, this is an odd question. I guess you are doing this at school? Maybe online?
Welcome to the forum, amigo, but I am sorry to say that there is no passive voice in the group.
Hi, I know what the passive voice means and I watched videos and read the article you sent before. This is a multiple choice question that my teacher gave me. I couldn't find any example of the passive voice in this example. That is why I asked here. - Alisha7472
You did well in asking, alisha, and you were right, no passive sentence here, good job! Your teacher has made a mistake.
One possibility could be , what ken said.
La Unión Europea fue formada.
However, even that sentence would look add, passive, but sort of without a proper ending.
la Unión Europea fue formada en el año 2000 (for example).
That would be a proper sentence.
Welcome to the forum. Do you have a teacher, if so you should ask them to explain the passive voice again.
The answer is not D.
Do you know what the term passive voice means? Sometimes it is used in third person with the use of se. A bit like the use in English of One does this/that.
However,you do not have any examples of that construction.
Here is a link on this site as to what it involves read it and you should be able to get it easily. If you are still puzzled ask another question/edit your question.
I am not trying to be a spoil sport it is better for you to treat it as a chance to revise.
I remember when first learning about passive voice that we would say I've lost my keys but the Spanish prefer to shift blame and say the keys have been lost!
