Ways of translating the Passive into Russian

There are three ways of translating the Passive Voice into Russian:

a) By the verb быть+краткая форма причастия страдательного залога. In the present the verb is not used.

b) By verbs in –ся.

c) By means of indefinite personal construction (неопределенно-личные предложения). The last way of translating is possible only if the doer of the action is not mentioned.

Houses are built of stone.

Дома строятся из камня.

Дома строят из камня.

The house was built in1932.

Дом построили в 1932 году.

The experiment was made by a famous scientist.

Опыт был произведен знаменитым ученым.

Опыт производился знаменитым ученым.

Uses of the Passive Voice peculiar to the English language

There are cases when the use of the Passive Voice seems to Russian students very peculiar because we find no analogous constructions in Russian. These cases are as follows:

1. The verbs to accord to advice, to allow, to ask, to award, to deny, to envy, to forbid, to forgive, to give to grant, to offer, to order, to pay, to prescribe, to promise, to refuse, to show, to teach, to tell are used in the Passive Voice. These verbs always take an object expressed by a noun or an infinitive. The action expressed by the Passive Predicate passes on the subject and the object. This subject corresponds to the Russian indirect object. E.g. He was granted ten day’s leave has he been shown the documents? The patient was prescribed a strict diet. He was ordered a change of scene. We were to wait (Th.Dreiser).

Note – These verbs admit of another type of passive construction if the object is expressed by a noun. Thus, we can say not only I was given a book. He was shown a book, but also A book was given to me, A book was shown to him. The choice of the construction depends on the logical stress: in I was given a book. The book shown to him the person is emphasized.

2. The Passive Voice is possible with intransitive verbs used with preposition: to account for, to agree upon, to allude in, to arrive at, to call for, to call upon, to comment upon, to depend on, to dispose of to hear of to insist on, to interfere with, to laugh at, to look down, to look up, to provide for, to put at, to put up with, to read to, to run over, to send for, to speak about, to store at, to talk about.

At last an agreement was arrived at. His strange behavior was largely commented upon. He can be depended upon to keep strict silence. This is certainly to keep strict referred to.

The composite verb to do away with the proposition with can be used in the Passive Voice.

In our country illiteracy was done away with many years ago. Note – To send for can be used only in connection with people. E.g. The doctor was sent for.

3) The following verbal phraseological units can be used in the Passive Voice: to find fault with, to lose sight of, to make fun of, to make use of, to pay attention, to put an end to, to set fire to, to take care of.

4) Quite peculiar is the case when the subject of the Passive predicate corresponds to Russian adverbial modifier. This is the case with the intransitive verbs to live and to sleep with the proposition in. e.g. The bed was not slept in. the room is not lived in (Th.Dreiser).

5) There are a number of transitive verbs in English which correspond to intransitive verbs in Russian. They are: to affect, to answer, to assist, to attend, to follow, to help, to influence, to join, to watch.

These verbs naturally admit of the passive construction while their Russian equivalents cannot be used in the Passive Voice.

She was greatly affected by the scene (Th.Dreiser).

The report was followed by a discussion (Th.Dreiser).

Such sentences are rendered in russian by indefinite – personal sentences unless the latter case either the Active Voice is used which occurs rather seldom or the Passive Voice.

The poor child was always being found fault with (Th.Dreiser).

2.6 The grammatical semantics of the combination to be + Participle II

The combination to be + Participle II can denote an action in which case it is a simple predicate expressed by a verb in the Passive Voice. It can also denote a stse, then it is a compound nominal predicate consisting of a link verb and a predicative.

As the director was ill, the documents were signed by his assistant (Th.Dreiser).

The compound nominal predicate expressed by the verb to be and Participle II can be translated only by the verb быть + краткая форма причастия. In the present the verb быть is not used.

The statue is broken (Th.Dreiser).

Статуя разбита.

When I come the papers were signed and lay on the secretary’s table (Th.Dreiser).

Когда я пришел, документы были подписаны и лежали на столе у секретаря.

The use of tenses is closely connected with meanings combination to be + Participle II.

When I came up to the gate, it was already locked (Th.Dreiser).

Когда я подошел к воротам они уже были заперты.

The predicate indicates an action completed before a definite moment in the past

Don’t try to pen the gate. It is locked (Th.Dreiser). (state).

It has just been locked (Th.Dreiser). (action).

Conclusion