English for Specific Purposes, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp.

229--243, 1997
© 1997The American University.Published by Elsevier Science Ltd
Pergamon All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain
0889-4906/97 $17.00+0.00
PIh S0889-4906(96)00034-8

Contrastive Analysis of t h e Spanish and

English P a s s i v e Voice in Scientific P r o s e
A n a Maria E s p i n o z a

Abstract--English and Spanish passive voice patterns of the simple, continu-

ous, and perfect tenses were contrasted to find non-corresponding elements
to predict difficulties in the acquisition of English and Spanish as 1.2 for
Spanish and English-native speakers, respectively. The analysis of such pat-
terns showed that (a) there is a positive transfer between all the English and
the literal (T1) Spanish passive counterparts analysed and, consequently, they
are predicted to be easily acquired by both learners; (b) perfect tense patterns
show word-by-word matching in two out of three elements of the English and
non-literal (T2) Spanish forms and, therefore, they are assumed to be of
intermediate difficulty for both learners; (c) the English continuous patterns
show correspondence with just one of the three elements of the "1"2Spanish
equivalents and should be of high difficulty for both learners; and (d) no
correspondence occurs between the English simple tenses and those of the
T2 Spanish forms which also indicates high difficulty for these learners. Much
attention then should be paid to the amount of time devoted to the teaching
of patterns indicated in (b), (c) and (d) as well as to teaching materials to
reduce the non-correspondence effect and facilitate I2 acquisition. © 1997
The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd

Introduction
In both the scientific and technical registers of English and Spanish, the
passive voice is a frequently found construction, especially in the Materials
and Methods section of research papers. It is important, then, for the teacher
of English to Spanish-speakers in scientific and technical professions to
become aware of those patterns in the English passive voice which may
pose a difficulty for his/her students. Likewise, the teacher of Spanish to
English-speaking learners should also know beforehand what patterns will
be more troublesome for students in order to devote additional efforts to
these items.
My observational evidence from over 25 years of ESP and EFL teaching

Address correspondence to: Ana Maria Espinoza, Collegeof Agricultureand Veterinary Sciences, University
of Chile, Santiago, Chile.

229
230 A.M. Espinoza

to Spanish L1 adult learners has made me sympathize with the Contrastive

Analysis Hypothesis (CAH), i.e. the key to difficulty in learning a foreign
language lies in the comparison between native and foreign languages (Lado,
1957), and welcome James' (1994) views concerning the vitality of con-
trastive and error analysis.
Experienced teachers know they can predict many errors their learners
will make when learning English as a foreign language just from the natural
habit of comparing the native-language and foreign-language systems. Like-
wise, as claimed by Wardaugh (1970), they know that the analysis of errors
that these learners have actually made will help them understand the nature
of the interlanguage (IL) system operating at that moment. However, I
maintain that there is still an additional advantage of CA (which may seem
controversial to some) which has proved to be quite useful in my teaching:
contrasting the non-corresponding native language-TL verbal structures for
these learners in order to facilitate learning. As Gass (1988) points out, "The
additional attention paid to the target language in cases of high L1-L2
contrastivity results in more rapid learning." Thus, when adult learners are
shown such divergences in detail, they can more readily internalize them
and later add them to their repertoire by whatever means available.
It is true that successful learners acquire fundamental facts L2 "without
having explicitly been taught them" (Selinker 1984, p. 34), but formal L2
teaching by explicit explanation of the rule and identification of problem
item (s) appears to facilitate the task for all types of learners. Conversely,
when intentionally I have not highlighted a particular non-correspondence
between the L1 and L2 structures, these items inevitably have not been
acquired or, in some cases, have not been easily acquired by many learners
within a reasonable time.
The passive form of the simple, continuous and perfect tenses in English
and Spanish will be contrasted here to highlight their difficult elements
for both Spanish and English-speaking student of English and Spanish,
respectively. Awareness of the non-corresponding items in these structures
by adult learners can reduce their effect and therefore facilitate their acqui-
sition.

Reviewing the Passive Voice

The passive voice in both English and Spanish has been well described
in numerous sources. It occurs in a sentence in which the grammatical
subject of the verb is the goal or recipient of the action expressed by the
verb (Hartmann & Stork 1976).
Both in English and in Spanish, the passive voice is used when we have
little interest in, or knowledge of, the doer of the action but are more
interested in what happens to, or is done to, the person or thing thus affected
(Ewer & Latorre 1969). For example, in Many chemicals are used for crop
protection, the doer of the action is not expressed because we are not
 The Spanish and English Passive Voice 25 1

concerned with who uses the chemicals but with what is used for crop
protection.
Kierzek and Gibson (1965) note that, while the active voice is preferred
in most writing, the passive voice is often indispensable when the object or
receiver of the action of the verb is more important than the doer, as often
happens in the Materials and Methods section of scientific articles. In this
case, the active subject is usually self-evident, or unimportant, but some-
times, this construction is overused and sounds "awkward and heavy"
(House & Harman 1963, p. 245).
On the other hand, Tarone et al. (1985), in comparing the frequency of
the passive and active voices occurring in two astrophysics journal papers,
found that the passive seems to be used when the authors are simply
following established or standard procedures; when these authors refer to
their own proposed future work; and to describe the works of others (unless
that work is not mentioned in contrast to the author's).
In English, the passive voice is composed of a passive subject (or patient),
a form of the verb to be plus the past participle of a transitive verb, and
optional indication of the doer of the action in a by-phrase. The verbal
elements, however, are not exclusive to the passive structure. They also
occur in patterns where the subject is not the receiver of the action expressed
by the verb, as in the stative structure Those cattle are infected, where a given
transitory state or condition is described.
According to the Real Academia Espafiola (RAE) (1973), in Spanish there
are two forms of the passive voice: (1) with a form of the verb ser plus the
past participle of a transitive verb, e.g. Todos los informes son enviados por
correo certificado, and (2) with the passive sign se plus an active form of the
verb, e.g. Todos los informes se envian por correo certificado. This latter form,
which only takes place in the third person singular or plural (Revilla 1980),
occurs more frequently in scientific prose than the former. As in English,
the agent of the action may be expressed or implied in alternative (1);
however, it should not be expressed in the form with se. Therefore, we would
not say Este cuadro se pint6 por Goya but Este cuadro fue pintado por Goya
(Martinez-Amador 1954).
From observing the formulae
English -~ to be +past participle

/ " ser +past participle

Spanish~ se +active verb form

four general conclusions can be drawn:

In rendering a passive structure from his/her native language (L1) into the
target language (L2),
(1) The English speaker will have (2) The Spanish speaker will have
to deal with two structures, to deal with just one structure.
232 A.M. Espinoza

In rendering the L2 passive structure into his/her L1,

(3) The English speaker will have (4) The Spanish speaker will have
just one possible structure in two choices.
English.
To facilitate the discussion of the Spanish structures, the alternative rep-
resented by a form of the verb ser plus the past participle of a transitive verb
(i.e. literal or word-by-word correspondence with the English pattern) will
be referred to as '~FI". Likewise, the alternative with the passive sign se 1
plus an active form of the same verb s will be designated as 'T2".

Contrasting the Passive Simple Tenses

Simple Present Tense
To illustrate habitual action in this tense, let us take the sentence The fruit
is sprayed with Ethrel at this time. This can be expressed in Spanish passive
by either La fruta es pulverizada con Ethrel en esta ~poca, (T1) or by La fruta
se pulveriza con Ethrel... 0"2). Since the T1 structure is found to correspond
exactly with the English structure, the Spanish speaker should not have any
problem in learning this latter item (i.e. is plus past participle).
The English speaker, in turn, will not have problems with T1 itself but
with the inflection of the Spanish past participle which marks two categories:
singular number and feminine gender (pulverizada).
However, a semantic problem may arise here since the English pattern
can indicate either an action/process or a state, as indicated previously.
Therefore, both the English and the Spanish student in rendering The fruit
is sprayed with Ethrel in Spanish will have a third possibility, which is not
passive voice but a stative construction: Lafruta est[zpulverizada con Ethrel.
The past participle with estar is purely adjectival and represents the state
resultant from a previous act (Spaulding 1967). The context in which the
English structure appears, then, will be the only guide the student will have
in order to decide whether the appropriate translation for the pattern should
be the passive with ser for the connotation action/process, or the con-
strnction with estar, for describing a transitory state or condition of the
subject.
In T2 (i.e. La fruta se pulveriza con Ethrel en esta ~poea), the passive sign
is followed by the active simple present of the third person singular of
pulverizar. This structure is completely different from its English equivalent
and is, therefore, likely to cause problems for the English-speaking student.
Moreover, some grammars indicate the word-order for this pattern as Se

~The passive sign is often improperly called the reflexive pronoun (RAE 1931: 254) and this is the reason
why the T2 passive structures are also known as "reflexive passive" (Revilla 1980).
ZThis second alternative of the passive voice (my T2 patterns) is also referred to as a "sentence with implicit
agent with pronoun se" (Wonder 1990).
 The Spanish and English Passive Voice 255

pulveriza lafruta con Ethrel, which, at least in my experience, would be more

likely to be found in advertising slogans, such as Se pulverizafruta con Ethrel
(without la).
Similarly, the Spanish-speaking student will also find it difficult to express
this T2 in English. However, since he is naturally aware that T1 is equivalent
to T2 he can easily, and often automatically, resort to the following pro-
cedure: (1) to transform his "i"2 into T1, and (2) to translate this latter into
English. The procedure is illustrated below:
La fruta se pulveriza con Ethrel... (T2)
(Step 1) La fruta es pulverizada con Ethrel... (T1)
(Step 2) The fruit is sprayed with Ethrel...
(target pattern)
ff the doer of the action needs to be indicated in the structure, the Spanish-
speaking student will find that his obligatory structure fits the English
pattern word for word:

La fruta es cosechada por varios obreros. (T1)

The fruit is harvested by several workers.
This form can thus be predicted to be an easy item for the Spanish-speaking
student of English. However, even though the above T1 is an obligatory
pattern, the Engfish speaker may produce the following incorrect sentence
if he chooses the T2 and includes the agent: "*La fruta se cosecha por varios
trabajadores." In sentences with verbs indicating action/process like this,
the occurrence of an implicit but undetermined agent does not allow the
inclusion of a determined agent preceded by por (Wonder 1990). In teaching
Spanish to English speakers, emphasis therefore should be placed on the
use of the T1 pattern when the agent is expressed.

Simple Past Tense. Now, let us examine the sentence The fields were sown
with clover, which has four possible passive translations in Spanish:
(a) Los potreros eran sembrados con tr6bol.
T1
(b) Los potreros fueron sembrados con tr6bol.
(c) Los potreros se sembraban con tr6bol.
T2
(d) Los potreros se sembraron con trebol.
The two new translation possibilities arise from the fact that Spanish verbs
have two preterites: the imperfect (e.g. eran, sembraban) and the indefinite
(e.g. fueron, sembraron). The English-speaking student of Spanish should
be taught these four possibilities and when to use each of them in a proper
situation.
2,54 A.M. Espinoza

These tenses imply a semantic difference. The student would have to

learn that (a) and (c) describing an action habitually performed in the past
are better rendered in English by the expression used to be+past participle
(The fields used to be sown with clover), while alternatives (b) and (d) are left
to describe definite actions completely carried out in the past. For the latter,
this same learner of Spanish could simplify his task by restricting his options
to (b), where the problems to be faced are the appropriate past form for the
auxilliary verb and agreement of the participle with the subject in gender
and number. Although alternative (d) is more commonly found, it can be
predicted to be very difficult for this learner due to the non-correspondence
with the English pattern. In addition, item (d) is controversial because, as
indicated before, "officially" the word-order should be Se sembraron los
potreros con tr~bol, which sounds very strange to most Spanish L1 speakers.
However, the word-order in Los potreros se sembraron con tr~bol may be
eventually recognized as educated usage. Perhaps it is the article los that
induces this latter order, because there is no word-order problem in Se
sembraron 3 hectdreas con tr~bol, where the article does not occur. Thus,
with pattern (d), the problems that the English L1 learner of Spanish will
face are quite controversial even among Spanish NL speakers.
Conversely, the work of the Spanish-speaking student of English will be
lightened by the fact that he will generally have to produce just one sentence
in English for any of his possible patterns. Technically, he could render:

(a) Los potreros eran sembrados con trrbol.

T1
(b) Los potreros fueron sembrados con trrbol.
(c) Los potreros se sembraban con tr6bol.
T2
(d) Los potreros se sembraron con tr6bol.

as:

The fields were sown with clover.

However, this student of English would have to be careful in translating the

English patterns into Spanish so that the semantic element is kept. He would
need to observe the whole context in which the pattern occurs to determine
whether is is a description of a habitual action in the past, in which case he
will probably render items (a) and (c) as The felds used to be sown with
clover, or a statement of something completely carried out in the past
( . . . were s o w n . . . ) . To render the stative construction Los potreros estaban
sembrados con tr~bol (describing a transitory condition of the subject), he
would have to apply the same were sown pattern.
From another point of view, if the agent of the action is expressed in the
passive structure in the simple past tense in English, the English speaker
may produce two correct sentences and two incorrect ones in Spanish as
follows:
 The Spanish and English Passive Voice 235

The fields were weeded by the workers.

Los potreros eran desmalezados por los obreros.
Los potreros fueron desmalezados por los obreros.
* Los potreros se desmalezaban por los obreros.
* Los potreros se desmalezaron por los obreros.
If the doer of the action is expressed in Spanish, the Spanish speaker
will technically have the following patterns in English for expressing both
semantically different constructions:

or ~/~ (Inthoseyears .... ) the fields usedtobe (hand) weeded by the workers.
(In those years .... ) the fields were (hand) weeded by the workers.
for (En aquellos afios .... ) los potreros eran desemalezados (amano) por
los obreros.
versus
The fields were (hand) weeded by the workers (lastweek).
for Los potreros fueron desmalezados amanoporlosobreros
(la semana pasada).
Since the verbal elements of the two latter English patterns perfectly cor-
respond with those of both Spanish patterns, they will no doubt require little
effort from the Spanish speaker. But the more common used to be+past
participle pattern will require a greater effort.

Contrasting the Passive Continuous T e n s e s

Present Continuous Tense
In the sentence, The calves are being fed with bottles, being identifies the
continuous or progressive aspect of the action which, in Spanish, is rendered
by the elements -ando, for verbs of the first conjugation, and by -(i)endo, for
verbs of either the second or third conjugations.
There are three possibilities for expressing this sentence in Spanish:
(a) Los terneros eslkn siendo alimentados con mamaderas.
(b) A los terneros se los estfi alimentando con mamaderas.
(c) A los terneros los eslkn alimentando con mamaderas.
For some specialists, (b) would be an instance of an impersonal construction
in Spanish since the auxilliary verb is in the singular form, although the
subject is plural (Stockwell et al. 1973).
The English-speaking student will generally use structure (a), since it
matches quite well the pattern in his LI"
Los terneros estfin siendo alimentados con mamaderas.
I I I
The calves are being fed with bottles.
236 A.M. Espinoza

Conversely, both (b) and (c) could become serious difficulties for him
because the continuous or progressive aspect in both is indicated in the
main verb (alimentando), while in English it is shown by being. In addition,
both (b) and (c) share the preposition a and the pronoun los, while (b)
includes the pronoun se, elements having no counterparts in the English
patterns illustrated in (a).
To make matters worse, the auxiliary verb in Co) is in the singular form.
This Spanish pattern, then, has five elements that will make it extremely
difficult for the English L1 learner:
(b) A los terneros se los estd alimentando...
1 234 5
The calves are being fed...
The only word-for-word correspondences in this case are los terneros and the
calves.
Sometimes, there is even a further possibility of translation for the passive
voice of the continuous tense in English, as illustrated below:
The cattle are being vaccinated against FMD on every farm.
(d) Los vacunos se estfin vacunando contra la fiebre aftosa en todos los
predios.
The latter pattern is frequently seen and heard in Spanish. However, to
some ears, it may sound absurd, as it suggests the cattle were vaccinating
themselves against the disease. Within other semantic contexts, such as
Los datos se estdn analizando con mucho cuidado or El experimento se estd
realizando en condiciones de campo, the same verbal elements and the pro-
noun se occur frequently.

Past Continuous Tense

If the English-speaking student were to translate the sentence All the
figures were being checked in detail (probably not in scientific prose, but
rather in colloquial situations), he would technically have the following
possibilities in Spanish:
(a) Todas las cifras estaban siendo revisadas en detalle (estar; ser)
T1
(b) Todas las cifras estuvieron siendo revisadas en detalle (estar; ser)

(a) Todas las cifras se estaban revisando en detalle (estar)

OR Se estaban revisando todas las cifras en detalle.
T2
Co) Todas las cifras se estuvieron revisando en detalle (estar)
The student of Spanish will probably produce one of the T1 sentences.
However, it will be difficult for him to choose the pattern he needs since
 The Spanish and English Passive Voice 257

these alternatives are semantically different. Thus, T1 (a) would appear in a

context such as En esos momentos, cuando todas las cifras estaban siendo
revisadas en detalle . . . . That is to say, the pattern is used to indicate what
was being done at a defininte moment in the past.
T1 Co)would appear in a sentence such as Todas las cifras estuvieron siendo
revisadas en detalle durante horas. Although it is found less frequently, this
structure indicates a progressive action during a certain period in the past.
As to the T2 sentences, the English-speaking student will generally avoid
their usage since, apart from the connotations already indicated, they differ
too much from the English counterpart. The only structural correspondence
is shown by the auxiliary verbs estaban in T2(a) and estuvieron in T2CO)
matching the auxiliary were in the same sentence. The continuous aspect is
shown in the main verb, revisando, while in the English structure, it is
represented by being, and there is no past participle as in the English
patterns. Finally, the pronoun se cannot be overlooked since it is the passive
sign in the structures. In these T2 structures, the subject may be supplied
at the beginning or at the end of the sentence. The Spanish speaker, on the
other hand, will not have to consider possible connotations in any of the
passive past continuous tenses. Whatever the patterns he may need to
express in English, the resulting sentence will be a correct one because of
the word-for-word correspondence occurring between these tenses in the
two linguistic systems:

(I'l) (a) estaban

t sie/do reviidas
(b) st~vieron

were being checked

The problem for the native Spanish student arises in trying to convey T2
patterns (se estaban or se estuvieron revisando) in English. He is expected to
produce were for estaban or estuvieron, which is correct, but he will probably
supply checking for revisando, producing the following sentence: *All the
figures were checking.
As indicated for the simple tenses, if the agent or doer of the action is
mentioned in the passive voice of either the present or past continuous tense
in English, the usual choice in Spanish is T1, Todas las cifras estaban siendo
revisadas pot el cornit~ (Allthe figures were being checked by the committee)
while * Todas las cifras se estaban revisando por el comit~ is accepted by
some native speakers only (Wonder 1990). The English-speaking student of
Spanish might produce this latter pattern, but, in most cases, he will produce
the former one for the correspondence with his own pattern in English. The
Spanish speaker, in turn, will have no choice but to supply the correct
English pattern: All the figures were being checked by the committee.
2,58 A.M. Espinoza

Contrasting the P a s s i v e Perfect T e n s e

Present Perfect Tense
This is a frequently found tense which fortunately has complete structural
correspondence between the English and T1 Spanish systems as shown in
the following examples:
The herbicides have been tested at different rates.
(T1) Los herbicidas han sido probados a diferentes dosis.
Consequently, no difficulty is predicted here for either the Spanish-speaking
student of English or the English-speaking student of Spanish, respectively.
The T2 Spanish option Los herbicidas se han probado a diferentes dosis,
although not identical to the English pattern, should not offer so much
trouble for the English-speaking student as other T2 patterns here discussed.
The occurrence in the Spanish pattern of two of the three verbal forms of
its English counterpart should facilitate the mastering of this structure.
Thus, in comparing:
The herbicides have been tested at different rates.
\ $
(T2) Los herbicidas se han probado a diferentes dosis,
we find a positive matching between have and han and between tested and
probado. However, care should be taken here to maintain the ending -ado
unaltered (whatever the number and gender of the passive subject) in
participles of the first conjugation like probado and the ending -ido for both
the second and third conjugations (as in traido and rnedido). For producing
the T2 Spanish pattern from the English counterpart, both L2 learners
should supply the passive sign se before the auxiliary han and disregard
been. As an alternative, the Spanish L1 learner can also be asked to transform
the T2 structure into its equivalent T1 (which he does automatically, as I
have observed) and then proceed to translate the latter word-for-word into
English, as follows:
Los herbicidas se han probado a distintas dosis. (T2)
(Step 1) Los herbicidas han sido probados a distintas dosis. (T1)
(Step 2) The herbicides have been tested at different rates.
(target pattern)

Past Perfect Tense

Likewise, in the following patterns:

The samples had been classified.-~

T1 Las rnuestras ha ido clasificadas. J

T2 Las muestras se habian clasificado.~'/
 The Spanish and English Passive Voice 259

the English passive voice and the T1 Spanish passive also show positive
correspondence in this tense. Therefore, it can be predicted that they will
not constitute problems for either of these speakers.
Although the English speaker will probably prefer T1, he will not find
pattern T2 difficult to learn for the occurrence in the Spanish sentence of
two of the three verbs found in the English structure: habian matches had
and clasificado matches classified. As indicated for the Present Perfect Tense,
the ending -ado is obligatory. Again, he will just have to supply the passive
sign se and disregard been.
The Spanish speaker in translating his T'2 pattern may find it easier to go
through his T1 structure first and then translate this latter into English, as
suggested above for the present perfect.
As in the simple and continuous tenses, T1 is the usual pattern for the
passive perfect if the doer of the action is indicated. Thus, we can translate
the sentence The samples had been classified by the botanist, as Las muestras
habian sido clasificadas por el botdnico, but * Las muestras se habian cla-
sificado por el botdnico is generally unacceptable. Fortunately, the English
speaker will tend to produce the former pattern since it has full cor-
respondence with the English equivalent.

Conclusions
From the preceding discussion and Table 1, the following conclusions
can be drawn:
(1) The Spanish T1 structures shown as patterns 1, 3, 4, 13 and 15 in Table
1 will be rather easy to master for the English-speaking student since,
disregarding the inflection of the past participle for number and gender,
they show structural correspondence with their English counterparts.
Patterns 13 and 15 will be even easier for the Spanish-speaking student
since, as the participle is not inflected in English, positive transfer will
occur. Patterns 7, 9 and 10 also show structural matching, but they
would rarely occur in scientific prose (particularly pattern 10); never-
theless, they are technically correct and do occur colloquially.
(2) The T2 structures of the perfect tenses (patterns 14 and 16) will pose
some difficulty for the English-speaking student because two of their
three elements (a and c) are verbal forms which coincide with two
elements of the corresponding English patterns (a and c). The semantic
correspondence should facilitate learning for both students. The Span-
ish-speaking student can resort to transforming his T2 sentences into
T1, which is a common and spontaneous mechanism for him, and then
translate the latter into English.
(3) Difficult items for the English-speaking student should be patterns 2, 5
and 6, corresponding to the T2 alternatives for the simple tenses in
which the only common element with the English structures is the tense
in which they occur. The Spanish-speaking student of English can resort
2/4.0 / k M. E s p i n o z a

TABLE 1
S l r u c a u ~ C o r r e s p o n d e n c e of t h e E n g l i s h a n d S p a n i s h P a s s i v e Voice in t h e Simple,
Continuous and Perfect Tenses

Pattern Matching
no. English elements Spanish

Simple present
(1) ... is sprayed... 2 to 2 (TI) ... es pulverizada...
(a) (b) (a) (b)
(2) None (T2) ... se pulveriza...
Simple past
(3) ... were s o w n . . . 2 to 2 (T1) ... eran s e m b r a d o s . . .
(a) (b) (a) (b)
(4) 2 to 2 (T,) ... fueron s e m b r a d o s . . .
(a) 0~)
(5) None (T2) ... se s e m b r a r o n . . .
(6) None (T2) ... se s e m b r a b a n . . .

Present continuous
(7) ... are being vaccinated... 3 to 3 (T1) ... e s t ~ siendo vacunados...
(a) (b) (c) (a) (b) (e)
(8) 3 to 1 (T2) ... se e s ~ n vacunando...
(a)
Past continuous
(9) . . . w e r e being c h e c k e d . . . 3 to 3 (T1) ... estaban siendo revisadas...
(a) (b) (c) (a) (b) (c)
(10) 3to 3 (T1) ... estuvieron siendo revisadas...
(a) (b) (c)
(11) 3to 1 ('I"2) ... se estaban revisando...
(a)
(12) 3to 1 (T2) ... se estuvieron revisando...
(a)
Present perfect
(13) ... have been t e s t e d . . . 3 to 3 (T1) ... han sido probados...
(a) (b) (c) (a) (b) (c)
(14) 3 to 2 ('I"2) ... se han probado...
(a) (c)
Past perfect
(15) . . . h a d been classified... 3 to 3 (T1) ...habian sido clasificadas...
(a) (b) (c) (a) (b) (c)
(16) 3 to 2 (T2) ... se habian clasificado...
(a) (c)

to transforming T2 into T1, and then translate the latter into English.
Moreover, with patterns 5 and 6, both students will have to determine, by
the context in which the pattern occurs, whether the English structure is
referring to a habitual action in the past (pattern 6) or to a completed
action in the past (pattern 5) in order to supply the exact equivalent in
Spanish. Patterns 3 and 6 also can be rendered with the used to be+past
participle pattern with just one common feature (the participle) in item
3, but with zero matching with the Spanish equivalent of pattern 6.
Patterns 8, 11 and 12 coincide only in one element (a) with the English
patterns, so they will also be troublesome for the English L1 student to
learn and for the Spanish L1 student to translate into English. The main
 The Spanish and English Passive Voice 2/41

difficulty seems to be that the continuous aspect of the Spanish structure

is marked in the main verb (afimentando, revisando), whereas, in Engl-
ish, this is indicated by the non-finite form being. These patterns may
be even more difficult than patterns 2, 5 and 6 discussed above. Pattern
12, although technically correct, is seldom seen or heard, so learning
and teaching effort should not be spent on it.
There are other types of passive construction in English which should not
be overlooked. Some of these are:
(a) A passive pattern plus a preposition, e.g. 'q'he doctor was sent for, They
were often laughed at" (in conversational English).
(b) Passive patterns with the indirect subject appearing as the passive or
patient subject, e.g. "He was offered a good job, They were given a new
possibility (also in conversational English)".
(c) Passive structures followed by infinitives, e.g. "Free sugars were observed
to accumulate rapidly in roots .... Ensilage has been considered to be
the conservation technique .... MON 15100 has been shown to be safe
when... ".
(d) Impersonal passive patterns, e.g. "It is known that gibberellic acid pro-
duces .... It is thought that auxins act by means of..."
The two latter types are commonly found in scientific prose and, although
not difficult for the Spanish L1 learner of English to translate, they are very
difficult to produce. The learner may have acquired the grammatical rule,
yet he fails to produce the pattern, as shown by many Spanish L1 pro-
fessionals who have been in English-speaking countries for a long time and
inevitably fail to produce these items in their scientific writing.
These and other patterns should be analyzed and contrasted with their
Spanish equivalent to determine the difficulty level for both the English L1
learners of Spanish and the Spanish L1 learners of English. Once this task
is accomplished, pedagogical mechanisms should be developed to facilitate
the learning process.
Moreover, FL teachers should be constantly alert with respect to their
students' performance so as to determine the relevant features of their
interlanguage (Selinker 1991). It is here that one may gather valuable data
for contrasting the learners' L1 and L2 in search of explanations about the
nature of their partial learning (transfer, overgeneralization, etc.).
However, as claimed by Faerch and Kasper (1983), I maintain that it is as
useful to make learners aware of the problems they may face (a "problem-
raising strategy") with non-corresponding, or partially corresponding items,
as in the passive patterns discussed here. Often a simple "beware" pointer
will help the non-linguistically gifted learners to solve a problem that they
cannot internalize in spite of intensive instruction.
The predictions inferred from this study will, of course, need formal
validation with control and experimental groups of learners. In the mean-
time, since part of the criteria for "facts" gleaned from empirical evidence is
242 A.M. Espinoza

that they do not stray too much from experiential/observational evidence

(Selinker 1991), it is hoped that this work may stimulate FL teachers of
English for adult learners to carry out similar predictions (based on CA) of
problem features so as to implement proper teaching strategies to facilitate
the learning of such items.

(Revised version received May 1996)

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Ana Marie Esplnoza is Assistant Professor of ESP at the College of

Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Chile. Her primary
interests include the development of ESP materials and the study of scientific
agricultural discourse.