“John ate the cake.”

is an active sentence. John, the subject of the sentence, is also the one doing the eating. The following sentence, however, is a passive way to say the same thing

“The cake was eaten by John.”

In this example, the subject (the cake) is not the entity committing the action. John is eating the cake and not vice versa. This is the passive voice.

The Passive In Spanish

The passive voice in Spanish works pretty much the same way as in English. For instance,

“John comió la torta.”

and

“La torta fue comido por John.”

are word-for-word translations of their equivalents above. Since it works the same as in English, this particular way of writing the passive is easy to understand; however, there is another way to use the passive in Spanish which has no English equivalent.

The Reflexive Substitute For The Passive

When there is no explicit source of the action, the reflexive substitute for the passive is often used. This can usually be thought of along the lines of the impersonal “they” in English. For example

“They say this restaurant is very expensive.”

Who says that? “They” do, which is to say nobody in particular. It’s just the general consensus. In Spanish, you would use the reflexive pronoun “se” to convey the same meaning.

“Se dice que este restaurante es muy caro.”

What the above sentence literally means is

“It is said that this restaurant is very expensive”

The impersonal “they” is translated using the reflexive substitute for the passive, “se dice” or “it is said.” The “they” doesn’t refer to any one person or group in particular, just a general social consensus.