Understanding and Translating of English Passive Sentences into Chinese

【Abstract】： Passive sentence is a common linguistic phenomenon in both Chinese and English， and passive sentence is more widely used in English. This paper gives a brief introduction to the understanding of passive sentences of English， and finds out the ways of translating the English passive sentences into Chinese.

【Keywords】：Passive sentences; English; Chinese; Translation;

I. Introduction

S. Baker ever said that “Our massed， scientific， and bureaucratic society is so addicted to the passive voice that you must constantly alert yourself against its drowsy， impersonal pomp”（Baker，121）， so we can see that passive sentences almost have become a special usage in English. The correct understanding of English passive sentence and how to translate it into Chinese has become more and more important to learn English well.

Ⅱ. Understanding of English passive sentence

In order to understand English passive sentence correctly， we need to know about the definition of passive voice and its main functions.

A. The definition of passive voice

Passive voice is a voice indicates that the subject is the patient or recipient of the action denoted by the verb. （David， 259）

B.The main functions of the passive sentences

1. Give prominence to sentence focus

The details of this function are as follows：

a. To emphasize action process.

In some passive sentences， which emphasize action process， their structure representation is “the agent+ the action process”. The action process is emphasized as the sentence focus， which takes the sentence-final position. For example：

1） The detective was murdered. （“was murdered” is the sentence focus）

b. To emphasize actor or the agent.

When the speaker wants to emphasize actor or the agent and he/she also wants to take the recipient as a start， his/her emphasis would be the actor or the agent. Then its structure representation is” the recipient+ the action process+ by+ the actor/agent”. “By+ the actor/agent” takes sentence-final position and also the sentence focus. For examples：

1）This film is disliked by many critics. （“by many critics” is the sentence focus）

2. Make the tone euphemistic

The agent doesn’t need to appear in the passive sentence， which can bring the effect of separating the people from the problem and avoid the head-on confrontation between the two parties. Therefore， when the speaker is not convenient or willing to speak out the agent for some reasons， he/she will use the passive sentence to achieve the effect of euphemistic. In order to understand the effect better， let’s compare the two groups of sentences：

1） a. The dishes must be washed up.

b. You must wash up the dishes.

The sentences all expressed the requests or demands euphemistically. The speakers would make the listener and himself/herself make concessions in sentence a.

3. State objective facts

The focuses of passive sentences always fall on the description of objective facts or situations， because the agents don’t always appear in the sentences. For example：

Concrete is produced by mixing together cement， water and mineral aggregates. This mixture is placed into a suitable mould， compacted and allowed to harden.

This paragraph is abstract from a science and technology article about concrete， and the passive voice is showed through these words---” is produced” ，”is placed” which are used to describe the objective process and theory of making concrete.

Above all， the passive sentences have some features that can’t be found in active sentences， so they can be of greater importance in many cases.

IV. The skills of translating the English passive sentences into Chinese

About these skills， there are many scholars has studied. Here I borrow ideas from Duan（Duan Manfu，73-75）， Zeng（Zeng Zhiyuan，72-75） and Yan（Yan Weiwei，83-88） to state the skills.

A. Translate English passive sentences into Chinese active sentences with the subject

The English subject can be translated into Chinese object， and English agent or some prepositional objects into the Chinese subject. If there are no appropriate words in English sentences can be translate into the Chinese subject， we can add some general subjects， such as “人們”（means people）， “有人”（means someone）， “人人”（means everyone ）， and take them as subjects. For examples：

1） Most of the questions have been settled satisfactorily.

The appropriate translation： 大部分問題已經圓滿的解決了

2） English is spoken in Britain， the U.S. and some other countries.

The appropriate translation： 英國，美國和其他一些國家講英語

B. Translate English passive sentences into Chinese zero-subject construction

As Chinese sentences can be no subjects and needn’t speak out the agents， we can translate the English passive sentences into Chinese zero-subject construction. When we do the translating， we can translate the subjects into Chinese objects after the verbs or add some words， such as “把”， ”將”， ”對”， to the objects before the verbs. The subjects of some special English passive sentences are the nouns of verb phrases， and we can translate the union of the subjects and predicates of English passive sentences into Chinese zero-subject construction. For examples：

1） All the data available should be collected with care before one works at a theory.

The appropriate translation： 在制定理論前，應仔細搜集和研究現有的所有數據和資料。

2） Smokers must be warned that doctors have reached the conclusion that smoking increase the possibility of lung cancer.

The appropriate translation： 必須警告吸煙者，醫生已得出結論，吸煙會增加患肺癌的可能性。

C. Translate English passive sentences into Chinese passive sentences

If some English passive sentences emphasize the predicate verb， we can translate them into Chinese passive sentences. When we do the translating， we can add “加”， “被”，”受”，由”or “為” and so on before the agents and the subjects remain to convey the passive meaning. In other words， if the English passive sentences have the agents， we can add the words， such as “被”，”受”，由” and so on， to convey passive meaning. For examples：

1） Even in those years he was paid high respect.

即使在那幾年，他仍受到尊重。

2） Villagers had been evacuated， bridges had been blown， and railways had been destroyed.

村民們已經被疏散了，橋梁被炸毀，鐵路被毀掉。

D. Some ways of translating the sentence pattern like “It is+ V-ed that” into Chinese

In this kind of sentence pattern， “it” is the formal subject and what “that” has led is the subject clause. When we do the translating， we prefer using active voice and sometimes we need to add some generic subjects， such as ”我們”， ”人們”，”大家”， “有人” and so on， or we can translate this kind into Chinese zero-subject absolute construction， such as “據悉”，”應該說”，”必須指出”，”已經證明” and so on. For example：

1） It is considered that bioclimatology is an involved subject.

有人認為，生物氣象學是一門復雜的學科。

E. Translate English passive sentence into Chinese determinative-sentence

Chinese sentences are used to use the determinative-sentences to convey passive meaning， which structures are equivalent to the passive sentence structures. In general， English passive sentences which are used to state objective circumstances can be translate into Chinese determinative-sentences. For example：

1） My first twenty years were spent in the countryside.

我的前二十年是在農村度過的。

VI. Conclusion

The understanding of English passive sentences has been introduced by contrasting the differences between Chinese passive sentences and English passive sentences， such as different structures， usages， emotive meanings and so on， the main skills of translating English passive sentences which base on the correct understanding of English passive sentences. As English passive sentences always been a difficult during English learning process， the above understanding and translation skills may be not a comprehensive one and have many shortages， I hope it can be useful for Chinese learners.

In a word， passive sentence is an important sentential form used in many news reports， scientific journals and practical style writings. As we enter the 21st century， the communications between china and English-speaking countries and also the practice of English passive sentences have to be used widely. To master and apply the understanding and translation of English passive sentences are still an important task for Chinese students， and I believe there will be more studies about the understanding and translation of English passive sentences.