ser + past participle (+ por)

The true passive is ser + past participle, optionally naming the agent with por. Crucially, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number:

• La casa fue construida (por el arquitecto). — "The house was built (by the architect)." (feminine singular)
• Los libros fueron vendidos. — "The books were sold." (masculine plural)

Agreement is the tell: because the participle behaves like an adjective here, it takes -o / -a / -os / -as to match the subject — unlike the perfect tense, where the participle never changes.

Participle agreement

The Spanish favourite

Far more common than ser + participle is the se passive / impersonal. Use se + the verb in the 3rd person; the verb agrees with the thing "done":

• Se habla español. — "Spanish is spoken." (singular subject)
• Se venden casas. — "Houses are sold." (plural subject → plural verb)
• Se dice que… — "It is said that…"

Why Spanish loves it: it lets you leave the doer unnamed and sounds far more natural than a heavy ser passive. Reach for it in essays.

Which word completes it?

The se passive

Your turn — the se passive

The action vs the resulting state

This is the classic A-Level trap. Both use a participle, but they mean different things:

• ser + participle = the ACTION (something happened): La puerta fue cerrada (por el guardia). — "The door was closed (by the guard)."
• estar + participle = the RESULTING STATE (how it now is): La puerta está cerrada. — "The door is closed."

Test yourself: if you can add por + a doer, it's the ser passive (the action). If you're just describing how something looks now, it's estar (the state).

Action or resulting state?

Sort each sentence: is it ser + participle (the action) or estar + participle (the state)?

The state, not the action

Regular and irregular participles

Both passives lean on the past participle. Regular ones end -ado (-ar) or -ido (-er/-ir). Learn the irregulars cold:

In the passive these agree: La ventana está rota, Los cuadros fueron vistos — the irregular participle still takes -o/-a/-os/-as.

Match the infinitive to its past participle

Tap an infinitive on the left, then its past participle on the right.

Your turn — the true passive

Your turn — the resulting state

The third-person-plural trick

The most natural way to render an English passive with an unknown doer is to use the 3rd-person plural active — "they":

• Dicen que… — "It is said that…" / "They say that…"
• Construyeron la casa en 1990. — "The house was built in 1990."
• Me robaron el móvil. — "My phone was stolen." (lit. "They stole my phone.")

Three tools, one idea: to say "it is said that…" you can use Se dice que… (se passive) or Dicen que… (3rd-person plural). Both dodge the clumsy ser passive.

Avoiding the passive

Your turn — an irregular participle

The plural se passive

Your turn — the plural se passive

Same idea, four structures

• True passive: La casa fue construida por el arquitecto. (the action, agent named)
• se passive: Se construyó la casa. (doer irrelevant)
• estar + participle: La casa está construida. (the resulting state)
• 3rd-person plural: Construyeron la casa. (natural, active)

Exam gold: knowing when to swap the heavy ser passive for se or a 3rd-person-plural active is exactly the fluency A-Level markers reward.

Your passive toolkit

That completes the passive. Head back to the backbone for the remaining clusters. Press Finish.