The passive with ser
In the passive the spotlight is on the action, not on whoever performed it. The direct object of the active sentence becomes the subject: Cervantes escribió el libro turns into el libro fue escrito. The machinery is the one you know from English: was written by Cervantes and fue escrito por Cervantes line up word for word, with ser as the auxiliary.
Blueprint of a passive sentence
The agent, whoever performs the action, is optional and follows with por (the equivalent of by).
Active becomes passive
Cervantes escribió el libro.
Cervantes wrote the book. (active)
El libro fue escrito por Cervantes.
The book was written by Cervantes. (passive)
The participle agrees
This is the part English gives you no practice in. An English participle is frozen: written stays written for a book, a letter or a hundred letters. In a Spanish passive the participle behaves like an adjective and takes the gender and number of the subject. The stem escrit- picks up the matching ending -o/-a/-os/-as.
escribir (to write)
| Subject | Participle | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | escrito | El libro fue escrito. |
| feminine singular | escrita | La carta fue escrita. |
| masculine plural | escritos | Los libros fueron escritos. |
| feminine plural | escritas | Las cartas fueron escritas. |
La casa fue vendida el mes pasado.
The house was sold last month.
Los documentos fueron firmados por el director.
The documents were signed by the director.
With and without an agent
Without por
The doer is unknown or irrelevant. The sentence only says what happened.
La reunión fue cancelada.
The meeting was cancelled.
El puente fue destruido en la guerra.
The bridge was destroyed in the war.
With por
The doer matters, for example in news, reports or history.
El puente fue construido por ingenieros italianos.
The bridge was built by Italian engineers.
El acuerdo fue firmado por ambos países.
The agreement was signed by both countries.
Frequency is the real difficulty for English speakers. English uses the passive everywhere, in speech as much as in writing. The Spanish ser-passive is mostly written and formal. In everyday speech you will usually hear Aquí se habla español (Spanish is spoken here).
The passive in different tenses
Only ser carries the tense; the participle stays as it is, just as in English is written, was written, will be written.
ser in the passive
| Tense | ser | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presente | es | El campeón es admirado por todos. | The champion is admired by everyone. |
| Indefinido | fue | América fue descubierta en 1492. | America was discovered in 1492. |
| Perfecto | ha sido | El problema ha sido resuelto. | The problem has been solved. |
| Futuro | será | La ley será aprobada mañana. | The law will be passed tomorrow. |
