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Class: 4B06
University of Education
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 2
Abstract
How do you translate the simple sentence “Mary is taken to the zoo by her mother” into
Vietnamese? Many English learners do the translation like this: “Mary được dẫn đi sở thú bởi
mẹ cô ấy”. Do you think that sounds natural to Vietnamese ears in daily conversations?
Absolutely not. Unnaturalness is one of the most common mistakes that the majority of English
learners, and even some advanced ones, make as translating passive-meaning sentences from
English into Vietnamese. In order to help learners overcome those problematic translations, I
have done some research on the passive voice in the two languages, English and Vietnamese.
The research has three main parts. In the first part, some general descriptions of passive voice
in each of the language will be made to give readers certain background information about this
interesting language phenomenon. In the second part, several contrastive points will be
performed to explore the causes of mistakes often made. In the last one, a number of wrong
translations-to-avoid will be introduced, and then some implications for teaching as well as
suggestions for translating passive-meaning sentences from English to Vietnamese will be done
Definition
“The passive voice is a grammatical voice in which the subject receives the action of a
transitive verb” (“English passive voice”, 2009). For example, the sentence “I was punished” is
called a passive voice because the subject “I” receives the action of the verb “punish”, getting
punishment.
Usage
The passive voice is used more often in writing than in speaking. However, there are
some particular cases in which the passive voice is employed, especially when:
The role of the receiver is more important than that of the doer. For instance, in “the child
was struck by the bike”, people will pay more attention to the child’s health condition
People do not want to talk about who does the action. In the sentence “the vase was
broken”, the performer of breaking the vase is concealed, but the message of “the
broken vase” is still transferred. The doer may be afraid of some punishment or
compensation.
The performer is not important, not known or known by many people because it is too
popular. For instance, the sentence “my house was robbed last night” does not mention
the doer of the action as no one knows who the robber is. Or in “Bill Clinton was elected
president”, everyone knows that the performers are the American citizens. (“English
We want to put more emphasis on the main point of the sentence. For example, the
passive voice “the poor should not be taxed by the legislature” focuses more on the point
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 4
– the poor. The active voice “the legislature should not tax the poor” somehow
Structure
The general structure of English passive voice is “be + past participle”. Here is the table
Table 1
Past Continuous was/were + being + P.P He was being taken to the zoo.
Present Perfect has/have + been + P.P He has been taken to the zoo.
P. Perfect Continuous has/have + been+ being + P.P He has been being taken to the zoo.
Past Perfect had + been + P.P He had been taken to the zoo.
Past Perfect Continuous had + been + being + P.P He had been being taken to the zoo.
Future Continuous will + be + being + P.P He will be being taken to the zoo.
Future Perfect will + have + been + P.P He will have been taken to the zoo.
Future Perfect will + have + been + being + P.P He will have been being taken to the
Continuous zoo.
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 5
Those are the 12 main structures of the passive voice. In English, there are some
special ones that people who study this language should pay a close look to:
The first one is the double passive voice in which there are two passive-meaning parts.
Monday”.
The second one is the structure “It is said that …”. This kind of passive voice requires a
The third one is passive causatives. Have…cut in the sentence “I have my hair cut” is an
Usage
However, the passive meaning does . Therefore, the term “passive voice” can still be used so
as for things to be synchronized and easier to understand. In this paper, I will not go into details
about the controversy, but will only describe some background information about the passive
voice.
Vietnamese people do not often use passive voice in their daily lives, but many writers
do use it in their works. Some cases in which the Vietnamese need to use the passive voice are
that:
They want to emphasize the results of something. For example, in “Hàng nghìn người bị
giết trong trận động đất” (thousands of people were killed in the earthquake), the result
The writer or the speaker wants to keep the subject of the two clauses the same . One
instance is that “Nó phải học rất chăm chỉ mới được mời làm việc cho công ty kia đấy!”
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 6
(he made a lot of efforts, so he was invited to work for that company) has the same
They do not know who the performer is. In the sentence “Hôm qua nhà đó bị cướp” (that
house was robbed last night), no one knows who the robber is. (“Câu chủ động”, 2009)
Structure
The passive voice in Vietnamese is often expressed and recognized by the two words
“được” and “bị”. Therefore, the structure can be drawn out like this: “được/bị” + verb
(unchanged forms). An example can be found in the sentence “Nó bị phạt” (he is punished).
However, there are some cases that the two words do not perform passive meanings: “Nó
được gặp thủ tướng” (he has met the prime minister), or “Nó bị té” (she fell). The instances here
Passive voice with the word “được” is used when people want to mention positive
meanings : “Nó được cô giáo khen” (She is complimented by the teacher). On the other hand,
passive voice with the word “bị” is used when people want to mention negative aspects: “Nó bị
Nevertheless, not all passive meanings are marked with the two words above. There are
some kinds of special passive voice in which some sentences still have passive meanings
without any of the two words. For example, “Mặt tô đậm quá” (The face is heavily made up), and
“Anh sinh ở đâu?” (Where were you born?) are two passive-meaning sentences without
“được/bị”.
As we can see from the descriptions above, the usages of the passive voice in the two
languages are quite similar. The thing that matters here is not when the voice is used. It is the
differences in forms of the languages that cause incorrect translations for the learners.
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 7
Differences in forms
The difference in language origins marks a big gap between English and Vietnamese as
well as their passive voice forms. Below is a table of some contrastive points:
Table 2
The forms of "to be" and the verbs “bị” + verb: negative meanings
change based on the subjects and No changes are made in the forms
the tenses. Neither positive nor of both “được/bị” and the verbs.
changes.
They are awarded a big trophy. Tối qua nhà đó bị trộm : negative
Moreover, Vietnamese people do not often use the passive voice, but usually change it into the
active voice. For example, “Mary is taken to the zoo by her mother” should not be translated into
“Mary được dẫn đi sở thú bởi mẹ”, but “Mẹ dắt Mary đi sở thú”. Or even when the passive voice
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 8
is used, the word order in Vietnamese is different from that in English. For instance, the
sentence above should be translated into “Mary được mẹ dẫn đi sở thú” (often found in written
Vietnamese), not “Mary được dẫn đi sở thú bởi mẹ”. As a result, we can see that the
Vietnamese structure of the passive voice is “S + được/bị + O + verb” rather than “S + be + past
participle + by O” as in English. The “O” here is the object, which is optional. Therefore, it is
advised not to translate word by word from one language into another and vice versa.
Furthermore, in Vietnamese, people do not use double passive voice or passive causatives as
in English.
Consequently, the big differences between English and Vietnamese passive voice forms
and the complication of Vietnamese one have made many English learners find it difficult to
English into Vietnamese on 60 Vietnamese students from different English levels: pre-
intermediate (20 people), intermediate (20 people) and advanced (20 people), many students
still make incorrect translations. Here is the content of the survey, 5 English sentences:
Table 3
Question
Level 1 2 3 4 5
The table above shows that all groups of students make mistakes as translating English
scores are around 300) make most mistakes (71%), intermediate ones (whose TOEIC scores
are around 500) have less incorrect translations (52%), and advanced students (seniors of
English Department, HCMC University of Education) get the least wrong answers (only 13%).
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 10
We can also see that the sentence number 3 (double passives) seems to be the most difficult
one (with 78.33% of 60 students getting incorrect translations), and that the sentence number 1
(when were you born) is too easy to “trap” more than 13.33 % of the students. In general, nearly
half (45%) of all the students have problematic translations. Here are some examples of
1. When were you born? (students’ translation: bạn được sinh ra vào ngày nào?: not natural)
2. Mary is taken to the zoo by her mother (Mary được dẫn đi sở thú bởi mẹ cô ấy: not natural)
3. This paper is expected to be finished by Monday (Bài này được mong đợi được hoàn thành
4. It is said that he is a good student (Nó được nói là anh ta là một học sinh giỏi: not natural)
5. He has his hair cut. (Anh ta tự cắt tóc mình: wrong translation).
Read the sentence and decide whether it has positive or passive meaning. If the idea is
positive, then the word “được” should be used. On the other hand, if the meaning is
If the English sentence does not fit the usages of Vietnamese passive voice mentioned
Read some suggested translations for several kinds of passive voice below:
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 11
Table 4
S + “được/bị” + verb…
S + “được/bị” + O + verb..
For example,
2. “Mary is taken to the zoo by her mother”: Mary được mẹ dẫn đi sở thú (often in writing)/ Mẹ
3. This paper is expected to be finished by Monday: Thứ hai là phải làm xong bài này/ Bài này
4. It is said that he is a good student: Nhiều người nói/Nghe nói nó là học sinh giỏi.
5. He has his hair cut: Nó mới cắt tóc (an exceptive translation of passive causatives); they get
Some analysis of and contrastive points between English and Vietnamese passive voice
made above have set the stage for the next idea: some implications for English teaching and
Firstly, Vietnamese students have a habit of translating nearly word by word from
English into Vietnamese and vice versa, which usually cause them to make a lot of mistakes.
Therefore, this paper is written with the hope of helping them be aware of the differences
between passive voice in English and Vietnamese so that they can use it correctly. For
example, when they need to translate an English passive-meaning sentence into Vietnamese
for their parents or friends, they need to make a natural and correct translation so that it does
Secondly, teachers should also help students know that passive voice plays an
important role in English, and sometimes in Vietnamese, and it is expressed in various forms.
This will help students recognize the passive voice more easily and have correct transference.
For instance, in the sentence “I get my car fixed”, though there is no normal structure of passive
voice “be + past participle”, the sentence still has a passive meaning (passive causatives).
Thirdly, I hope that this paper will help students develop their linguistic skills in both
languages. Learning theories is just a way for students to do exercises well, but understanding
about the contrastive points between English and Vietnamese passive voice will give them
Finally, this paper will be helpful for teachers and students who like to become
translators. Natural and correct translations will bring them a successful job. Moreover, people
whose native language is English, or those who do not speak English as mother tongue but are
good at it can also get some good information about the passive voice in English and
Vietnamese from this paper, and therefore can communicate with Vietnamese people better.
PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE – A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 13
Vietnamese, but it is expressed differently in the two languages. However, with some
descriptions, contrast, analysis and implications for teaching and learning languages made
above, I hope that this paper can help students and teachers have better knowledge and correct
easy at all, especially knowing and mastering all the differences. Thus, learners should try their
best to practice the languages and overcome the confusion and difficulty of the gaps between
English and Vietnamese. And hopefully by reading this paper, the way to achieving that goal will
Reference List
Câu chủ động và câu bị động. (2009, November 26). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Câu_chủ_động_và_câu_bị_động
English passive voice. (2009, November 27). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved
Grinker, M.A. (1994). The Legal Writing Teaching Assistant: The Law Student's Guide to Good
http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaPassive_Voice.htm