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Spanish 3 Unit 9: The Passive Voice and Se Constructions

This unit covers the true passive (ser + past participle), the passive and impersonal se, the se for unplanned events, and estar + participle for resulting states. These structures are common in news, signs, instructions and formal writing.

Covers: True passive with ser, Passive se, Impersonal se, Se with personal a, Se for unplanned events, Estar + participle (resulting states)

Study guide

In the active voice the subject does the action: Cervantes escribió el Quijote. In the passive voice the subject receives the action: El Quijote fue escrito por Cervantes. The true passive uses ser in any tense + past participle, and the participle agrees in gender and number with the subject: Las cartas fueron enviadas; El puente será construido. The agent, if mentioned, is introduced by por. This structure is common in formal writing, history and journalism, but in everyday Spanish it sounds stiff, and speakers usually prefer the active voice or a se construction.

The passive se is the most common way to express a passive idea when the agent is not important. Use se + a third-person verb that agrees with the thing acted upon: Se vende casa (House for sale); Se venden casas. Se habla español aquí (Spanish is spoken here). Because the noun is the grammatical subject, the verb is singular for one thing and plural for several: Se necesita un camarero; Se necesitan camareros. The agent is not expressed with passive se; if you need to say who did it, use the active voice or ser + participle + por.

The impersonal se means one, you or people in general and uses a singular verb with no specific subject: Se vive bien aquí (One lives well here); ¿Cómo se dice...? (How do you say...?). It is also used with people as direct objects, which take the personal a, and then the verb stays singular even if the people are plural: Se contrató a dos ingenieros; Se busca a los responsables. Students often make the verb plural to match ingenieros, but the personal a shows they are objects, not subjects. Common signs use this structure: Se prohíbe fumar.

The se for unplanned or accidental events, sometimes called the no-fault se, presents an action as something that happened to someone rather than something they did on purpose. The pattern is se + indirect object pronoun + verb + subject: Se me cayó el vaso (I dropped the glass, literally the glass fell on me). The verb agrees with the thing, not the person: Se me cayeron los vasos. The indirect pronoun shows who was affected: se te olvidó, se le perdieron las llaves, se nos acabó la leche, se les rompió la ventana. Common verbs are caer, olvidar, perder, romper, acabar, quedar and descomponer.

Estar + past participle describes a resulting state, not an action. Compare La puerta fue abierta por el portero (the action of opening, a passive) with La puerta está abierta (the door is open, the result). The participle works as an adjective and agrees with the noun: Las ventanas están cerradas; La tarea está hecha. A good test: if you can add por + an agent and it describes an event, use ser; if it describes a condition you could observe afterward, use estar. Many test questions combine these, as in La carta fue escrita ayer y ahora está firmada.

Key ideas

• The true passive is ser + past participle (agreeing with the subject) + optional por + agent.
• Passive se uses se + third-person verb that agrees with the thing acted upon.
• Impersonal se uses a singular verb to mean one, you or people in general.
• When people are the objects of se with the personal a, the verb stays singular.
• Se for unplanned events: se + indirect object pronoun + verb agreeing with the thing.
• Estar + participle describes a resulting state; ser + participle describes the action.
• Passive se cannot express the agent; use ser + por or the active voice instead.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Forgetting to make the participle agree in the true passive (*Las casas fueron construido).
• Using a singular verb with a plural noun in passive se (*Se vende libros).
• Making the verb plural with personal a objects (*Se contrataron a dos ingenieros).
• Making the unplanned-se verb agree with the person instead of the thing (*Se me cayí el vaso).
• Using ser for a resulting state (*La puerta es abierta when you mean it is open now).

Before the test, make sure you can

• Convert active sentences into true passive sentences with ser + participle + por.
• Make participles agree in true passive and estar + participle sentences.
• Form passive se sentences with correct verb agreement.
• Use impersonal se, including with personal a objects.
• Express accidents with se + indirect object pronoun.
• Distinguish ser + participle (action) from estar + participle (state).
• Choose the most natural passive structure for a context (sign, news, conversation).

Words to know

se vende

for sale

se alquila

for rent

se busca

wanted

se prohíbe

it is forbidden

se necesita

needed

caerse

to fall

olvidarse

to forget

perderse

to get lost

romperse

to break

acabarse

to run out

descomponerse

to break down

fundar

to found

construir

to build

descubrir

to discover

publicar

to publish

elegir (i)

to elect

firmar

to sign

abierto/a

open

cerrado/a

closed

roto/a

broken

resuelto/a

solved

Sample practice questions

30 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.