Confusing example?

Question

Usted ________ el dinero en euros. You would be paid in euros.HINT: Conjugate "cobrar" in El Condicional Simple

This appears to be a passive construction in English. It makes me want to translate tú serías cobrado el dinero en euros.

As written, doesn't the sentence in English mean "You would pay in Euros?"

Answer

¡Hola Allison! As you have said above, the Spanish sentence "usted cobraría el dinero en euros" was translated into a passive construction in English because this is the more natural translation in this case.
In Spanish, we tend to avoid to use the passive voice and prefer the active voice instead. This is why the sentence, if we did the literal translation into English, it would be "you would collect the money in euros", and this was changed into "you would be paid in euros" in order to make it sound correct in English.
We do not have currently too many lessons about the use of the passive voice in Spanish in the system, but we hope to create some of them in the near future. Silvia.

Answer

This issue of the use of the passive in Spanish comes up often in my studies of the language. You are quite right; we love the passive voice in English.
But for the student who pays attention to grammar construction (i.e. students of level B2 and higher), it would be more clear if you maintained voice consistency in the English translation. Paying and being paid are very different actions, and the fact that "cobrar" can mean both is already confusing. "You would collect the money in Euros" is a perfectly articulate and natural sounding sentence in English.

Answer

Thanks for the interesting discussion. It helped me dive further into the meaning of cobrar because I have heard and read it frequently in Spanish transactions. I was surprised to see cobrar isn't listed in 501 Spanish Verbs.