HA NOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGLISH AND MODERN LANGUAGES

ASSIGNMENT ON CONTRACTIVE LANGUSTICS

COMPARATIVE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE AND

ENGLISH PASSIVE VOICE

Hanoi 2010
ASSIGNMENT ON CONTRACTIVE LANGUSTICS

COMPARATIVE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE AND

ENGLISH PASSIVE VOICE
 I. INTRODUCTION

1. Reason and purpose of research:

1.1. Reason:
In one of his poems, Nick Howe wrote:
“In the morning, it is said,
That every day I’m dragged from bed
By forces which are aimed to get me
So I’m pushed to school by 8:15.”
Here is an example of passive voice in English language that has brought many
difficulties to Vietnamese students in translating and understanding the exact
meaning of the source text. That leads to demands of acknowledge of passive voice in
two languages in order to not only get the exact meaning that matches with each
country’s literary style. In respond, many linguistic researchers have taken researches
to make this matter clear. Now here in this paper, I would like to introduce some
aspects of passive voice in English and compare it to one in Vietnamese.
1.2. Purpose:
My topic aims to collate some ways of using passive voice in English and
Vietnamese in order to help learners avoid making mistakes when they translate
passive voice structure from English to Vietnamese and vice versa.

2. Target of the research:

Differences and similarities of passive voice in English and Vietnamese

3. Contrastive field:
In this paper, I only compare passive voice in English and Vietnamese in general
and illustrate by pointing out its attendance in examples

4. Comparative method:
This research is carried out chiefly in two-way comparative way.
 II.CONTENT
1. Definition of passive voice
According to flwi.uln.edu (University Of Nebraska-Lincoln), passive voice is a
grammatical term indicating that a subject has something done to it rather than
performing the action itself; often, passive voice is considered weak writing and may,
therefore, be undesirable to many readers
Example: “The ball was thrown by the boy” in English
Or: “Quả bóng bị cậu bé ném đi” in Vietnamese

2. Passive voice in English

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 receiver’s role is more important than the doer’s. For instance, in “a man
was hit by the car”, people will pay more attention to the man’s health
condition than to the car.
− The person who performs the action is not preferred to be mentioned. In the
sentence “the glass was broken”, the person breaking the vase is hidden, but
the information of “the broken glass” is still transferred.
− The performer is not important, unknown or too well-known. For example,
“my bike was stolen last night” does not mention the doer of the action because
no one knows who did. Or in “air is needed to keep people alive”, it is no
doubt that the performers are everyone living on the earth.
Structures of passive voice in English follow a common form: “Subject+ to be+
Past Participial”. However, when rewriting active voice into passive voice, some
matters should be noticed:
− The object of the active sentence must be the subject of the passive
sentence.
− The subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive
sentence or is omitted.
− Verb “to be” must be changed in accordance with tense

3. Passive voice in Vietnamese.

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 “hàng nghìn người” (thousands of people) is
emphasized.
− 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!”
 − (he made a lot of efforts, so he was invited to work for that company) has
the same subject due to the use of the passive voice “được mời”.
− 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)
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 demonstrate active voice, not the passive one.
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 đánh” (He is hit).
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”.

4. Similarities, differences of passive voice in both languages

4.1. First, I would like to talk about the similarities of passive voice in the two
languages, which seem minor compare to the differences. In English, as well as in
Vietnamese, passive voice has the same function. It emphasizes the patients of the
action and the information given about that action, which it doesn’t care who causes.
As we can see from the descriptions above, the usages of the passive voice in the two
languages are quite similar.
4.2. 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.
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 is used, the word order in Vietnamese is different from
that in English. For instance:
− When were you born?”: bạn sinh ngày mấy?
− “Mary is taken to the zoo by her mother”: Mary được mẹ dẫn đi sở thú (often
in writing)/ Mẹ dẫn Mary đi sở thú (often in speaking).
− This paper is expected to be finished by Monday: Thứ hai là phải làm xong bài
này/ Bài này cần được hoàn thành trước thứ hai.
− It is said that he is a good student: Nhiều người nói/Nghe nói nó là học sinh
giỏi.
− He has his hair cut: Nó mới cắt tóc (an exceptive translation of passive
causatives)
 − They get their car fixed: Họ nhờ người sửa xe (normal passive-causative
translations).
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.
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 have good translations.

5. Implications for English teaching and learning of Passive Voice:

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 learning of the grammatical aspect mentioned.
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 not sound strange and difficult to understand.
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 deeper and better knowledge.
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.
 VI. Conclusion
So far we have revised the structure and meaning of passive voice in English and
similar ways to express it in Vietnamese. We also discussed the difference between
passive voices in English and Vietnamese, which cause the common mistakes that
students get when they learn English as a foreign language. In general, the ways to
express passive meaning of the two languages are quite different, despite of the minor
similarity. In my opinion, the best way to help students to master their passive voice
in English is to have a profound knowledge of passive sentence in Vietnamese.
Teacher should repeat what students have forgotten and correct the mistakes right on
that time so that they can remember and will not make them again.
 VII. REFERENCE
1. Passive voice: comparing linguistic and psycholinguistic research with
handbook prescriptions, Margaret F. Sweany, Colorado State University, 1986
2. Passive voice :a study of Ford Madox Ford and Henry James, California State
University, San Francisco, 1973
3. English passive voice, Wikipedia.org
4. Tieng Viet co “thai bi dong” khong?, Nguyen, Thi Anh. (2000) TCNN number