Rex wrote:

Un soldat américain a été tué en Iraq hier. The above is a passive sentence in French. I would translate the above into English as follows: An American soldier was killed in Iraq yesterday     OR Yesterday, an American soldier was killed in Iraq. I don't think my English version is a passive sentence. If you wrote, a soldier had been killed, it would be incorrect. Because it borders the past perfect tense, as far as I am concerned. You write the past perfect tense to push one action before the other. How do you translate the French sentence into English?

Hi Rex,

I don’t see how your sentences are not written in passive voice. They are as passive as passive can get.

You wrote:

 I would translate the above into English as follows:
An American soldier was killed in Iraq yesterday
    OR
Yesterday, an American soldier was killed in Iraq.

I don't think my English version is a passive sentence. If you wrote, a soldier had been killed, it would be incorrect. Because it borders the past perfect tense, as far as I am concerned. You write the past perfect tense to push one action before the other.

What is correct or otherwise sometimes can not be based on a one-line context.

Whether it is past perfect passive, present perfect passive, past passive or present progressive passive, a passive voice can not be anything else.

A military Humvee carrying 4 soldiers had been blown up as the vehicle passed through ...

American soldiers have been blown up by RSB .

A soldier was shot by insurgent fire yesterday.

American soldiers are being been killed almost on a daily basis since the war began 4 years ago.

Some may argue that the above sentence should have been in present perfect tense which does look and sound almost logical because they see the word ”since”. In fact, “are being killed” is more correct in my opinion because of the adverbial phrase “on a daily basis”.

The important thing is, we have to evaluate the complete context, not partially, in order to determine the meaning.

Goodman wrote:

I don’t see how your sentences are not written in passive voice. They are as passive as passive can get.   You wrote:  I would translate the above into English as follows: An American soldier was killed in Iraq yesterday     OR Yesterday, an American soldier was killed in Iraq. I don't think my English version is a passive sentence. If you wrote, a soldier had been killed, it would be incorrect. Because it borders the past perfect tense, as far as I am concerned. You write the past perfect tense to push one action before the other.

Rex wrote:

Thanks everybody for the comments. Would write the following if you heard that an American soldier died of an attack? Yesterday, an American soldier had killed in Iraq.

No, no! An American soldier had killed sounds like the soldier was the one who DID the killing, not the one who was died.

Yesterday, an American solider died in Iraq. He could have been shot. He could have had a heart attack. He could have had food poisoning. He could have fallen out of his bed and hit his head on a steel footlocker. That doesn't tell you that anyone was responsible for his death - merely that he died.

Yesterday, an American solider was killed in Iraq. Someone or something killed him. It could have been in an enemy attack. It could have been a helicopter accident. But some other person or thing beside the soldier himself was responsible for his death.

I remember my German professor talking about the "false passive" in structures such as "The house is sold." I was totally lost. I'm not surprised this is causing confusion.