ABSTRACT
Voice –la voz – is a grammatical term which shows the relationship between the subject of the verb and the action of the verb. In the passive voice the object of the verb is given prominence and the subject takes a secondary or ‘passive’ place. In a number of cases involving transitive verbs it is not always easy to establish whether a sentence is impersonal or whether it is a reflexive passive. In practice this should not be a huge problem for the learner of Spanish, who will be able to interpret the meaning correctly from the context. Impersonal sentences – las frases impersonales – are those where the agent or ‘doer’ of the action is absent, unknown or irrelevant. Spanish has a number of structures which are impersonal. Many of them also exist in English, where ‘one’, ‘you’ and ‘they’ can also be used in impersonal sentences.
