Reflexive verbs are very common in Spanish. For example, ‘I saw myself in the mirror´. A reflexive verb is one in which the verb acts on the subject. Using reflexive verbs can also help to avoid the passive voice in Spanish translation. This, then, would be an easy way of translating simple English sentences in the passive voice into the Spanish active voice.
The English sentence is in the passive voice, and does not name who arrested Juan, the Spanish sentence is in the active voice, and it does not name who arrested Juan either.
Hence, the Spanish translation of the English sentence ‘Juan was arrested´ can and should be ‘Arrestaron a Juan´. However, Spanish allows a sentence in the active voice to be constructed without specifying the name of the person who or the thing that is performing the action. In English, it is not possible to construct a sentence in the active voice without specifying the name of the person who or the thing that is performing the action. In the second place, the Spanish translator could try using a reflexive verb, generally a reflexive verb in the third person with the pronoun ‘se´. How then can the Spanish translator render the passive voice in Spanish translation? In the first place, he or she could try reformulating the sentence in the active voice. If, in Spanish translation, the translator retains even half of the passive voices of the source text, then he or she will be guilty of creating a target text that is unnatural and foreign-sounding. This is because: Firstly, the passive voice exists in Spanish grammar (for example, ‘El coche fue vendido´ or ‘The car was sold´) Secondly, its use is not grammatically incorrect, and yet, compared to the English language, its use is very infrequent in the Spanish language. The passive voice in Spanish translation usually poses problems for the translator. ‘I could not start the car´ is an example of active voice where the ‘I´ is performing the action of starting the car. It is contrary to the active voice, where the subject of the sentence performs the action. Instead, it is acted upon by some thing or some one else that some thing or someone generally remains unstated. In sentences that use the passive voice the subject of the sentence does not perform the action. Let us begin with a definition of the passive voice. Consideration of the Passive Voice in Spanish Translation
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