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- Grammar (https://forums.tomisimo.org/forumdisplay.php?f=19)

- - The passive voice (https://forums.tomisimo.org/showthread.php?t=13745)

The passive voice

Hi Guys.

Once again I have another beginner question to trouble you with, and would of course very much appreciate any help.

If I wanted to say:

'Those houses over there were built by Jack'

...I believe that i'm using 'Ser' here because it's a having been built by Jack is a characteristic of the house however I'm not entirely sure so if someone could confirm that for me...

'Acquellas Casas fueron construidas por Jack?'

If that's right, then my problem is solely when you remove the agent. If I now wanted to say; 'those books were written in Italian,' I know the literal translation is 'they wrote themselves' making it reflexive however, unfortunately, I failed to write down my thought process at the time of my lesson in my notes, so if anyone could translate that for me and explain where the 'se' fits into the sentence I'd be very thankful :).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kingfisher (Post 127820)

Hi Guys.

Once again I have another beginner question to trouble you with, and would of course very much appreciate any help.

If I wanted to say:

'Those houses over there were built by Jack'

...I believe that i'm using 'Ser' here because it's a having been built by Jack is a characteristic of the house however I'm not entirely sure so if someone could confirm that for me...

'Aquellas casas fueron construidas por Jack?'

If that's right, then my problem is solely when you remove the agent. If I now wanted to say; 'those books were written in Italian,' I know the literal translation is 'they wrote themselves' making it reflexive however, unfortunately, I failed to write down my thought process at the time of my lesson in my notes, so if anyone could translate that for me and explain where the 'se' fits into the sentence I'd be very thankful :).

'those books were written in Italian' = aquellos libros fueron escritos en italiano.

'those books were written in Italian' = aquellos libros se escribieron en italiano

@Kingfisher: You can take a look here. :)