The Correlation between English Sentences and Their Voices in the Process of Translation

Abstract

Languages provide their speakers with a variety of constructions that help them communicate effectively and efficiently. Two out of these constructions are active and passive forms. Some languages as Persian believe that an active sentence is usually preferable to a passive sentence because an active one is shorter, stronger and more direct. While some other languages as English believe that passive voice is used more frequently because it is a regular feature in formal especially scientific written texts. Based on what was mentioned above we can arrive at this conclusion that in order to have a fluent text, changing the voices in the process of translation is a must.

Although active sentences and passive ones share a common sense, and sometimes each of the active and passive have the same meaning and each one can be used instead of the other but not all passive sentences have the same meaning as that of the active. The present research helps the translators how to translate a text as natural as possible because if they know under what conditions it is obligatory to change the voice of sentences in the process of translation from English into Persian or vice versa, consequently they will produce the appearance that seems original.