Catalan passive se—written es before most consonants and s' before a vowel—presents an event without naming its agent: Es venen entrades “Tickets are sold / Tickets for sale.” The patient is the grammatical subject, so the verb agrees with it: singular es ven una entrada, plural es venen entrades. This agreement distinguishes the construction from impersonal se, whose verb remains singular.
Form and agreement
The basic pattern is:
es/s' + third-person verb + patient subject
Only third-person forms occur because the promoted patient is normally a third-person noun phrase. A present-tense model shows the decisive singular–plural contrast:
| Patient subject | Passive form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| un pis moblat | es lloga un pis moblat | one furnished flat is for rent |
| dos pisos moblats | es lloguen dos pisos moblats | two furnished flats are for rent |
| la sala | s'obre la sala | the hall is opened |
| les sales | s'obren les sales | the halls are opened |
En aquesta cooperativa es reparen bicicletes de tota mena.
At this cooperative, all kinds of bicycles are repaired.
Demà es publicarà la llista provisional d'admesos.
Tomorrow the provisional list of admitted applicants will be published.
No s'accepten devolucions sense el tiquet de compra.
Returns are not accepted without the receipt.
The postverbal position of the patient is frequent because the construction often introduces new information. Position does not cancel agreement: es reparen bicicletes, not es repara bicicletes, in careful standard Catalan.
Tense, aspect, and mood
The finite lexical verb carries tense and mood. Passive es does not itself encode time.
| Viewpoint | Model |
|---|---|
| present/habitual | es revisen les instal·lacions cada mes |
| bounded past | es van revisar les instal·lacions dilluns |
| background/habitual past | es revisaven les instal·lacions a mà |
| ongoing present | s'estan revisant les instal·lacions |
| future | es revisaran les instal·lacions demà |
| subjunctive | que es revisin les instal·lacions |
Abans les comandes s'apuntaven en una llibreta; ara es registren automàticament.
Orders used to be written in a notebook; now they are recorded automatically.
Durant aquesta setmana s'estan renovant els vestidors del pavelló.
This week the changing rooms at the sports center are being renovated.
Cal que es protegeixin millor les dades personals dels usuaris.
Users' personal data need to be protected better.
The subjunctive protegeixin is licensed by cal que: the protection is presented as necessary, not asserted as an accomplished fact. Passive voice does not mechanically select a mood.
Why the patient is a subject
Agreement is more than a spelling rule; it reveals the syntax. Compare an active clause and its passive-se counterpart:
| Clause | Subject | Object or patient subject |
|---|---|---|
| La biblioteca organitza els tallers. | la biblioteca | object: els tallers |
| S'organitzen els tallers. | patient: els tallers | no direct object |
Because the patient has become subject, it controls number and cannot be neutrally doubled by an accusative clitic. Fronting it as a topic is possible: Aquests tallers, s'organitzen cada primavera. The pause and discourse structure matter; the construction is not aquests tallers els s'organitzen.
No expressed agent
Passive se suppresses the agent. A phrase such as per l'ajuntament is therefore incompatible with the ordinary construction when it is meant as a passive agent. If naming the agent matters, choose an active clause or the ser passive.
Al setembre es reobrirà el teatre després de les obres.
In September the theater will reopen after the building work.
Al setembre el teatre serà reobert per la companyia municipal.
In September the theater will be reopened by the municipal company.
The first presents the reopening with no agent. The second explicitly attributes it. A per phrase may still appear with passive se when it has another meaning, such as cause, route, exchange, or time: Es venen per deu euros means “They are sold for ten euros,” not “by ten euros.”
Presentational uses
Passive se is particularly common in notices, advertisements, instructions, recipes, headlines, and procedural descriptions. These genres introduce goods, services, steps, and findings while leaving the human actor in the background.
Es busquen dues persones amb experiència en atenció al públic.
Two people with customer-service experience are wanted.
Primer es tallen les albergínies i després es couen al forn durant vint minuts.
First the eggplants are sliced, and then they are baked for twenty minutes.
En l'estudi s'analitzen tres corpus periodístics del mateix període.
The study analyzes three journalistic corpora from the same period.
The last example is (academic). Active L'estudi analitza... is often more direct, but passive se is useful when the method or material forms the discourse chain. Good style alternates structures according to focus rather than treating agent suppression as automatically scholarly.
Passive se versus ser passive
Both constructions background the agent, but they package information differently:
| Construction | Best suited to | Agent phrase? |
|---|---|---|
| Es van aprovar les bases. | neutral event, procedure, new postverbal patient | no |
| Les bases van ser aprovades. | established patient as topic; formal patient focus | optional |
| Les bases van ser aprovades pel patronat. | patient topic plus named agent | yes, with per |
In unmarked prose, se is often preferable when the agent is absent. The ser passive remains useful when the patient must stand first to maintain textual cohesion or when a long agent is introduced late.
Passive, reflexive, middle, or anticausative?
The spelling es also appears in several constructions. Interpretation depends on participant roles and context.
La Mireia es pentina davant del mirall.
Mireia combs her own hair in front of the mirror. (reflexive)
Les entrades es venen a la taquilla del teatre.
Tickets are sold at the theater box office. (passive)
Aquesta tela es renta fàcilment amb aigua freda.
This fabric washes easily in cold water. (middle/dispositional)
Amb el corrent d'aire, la finestra es va obrir de cop.
In the draft, the window suddenly opened. (anticausative change)
In the reflexive, the subject is an intentional agent acting on itself. In the passive, an unexpressed external agent performs the action on the patient. The middle attributes a general disposition to the subject. The anticausative presents a change without profiling an external causer. Some sentences are genuinely ambiguous without context; syntax does not always force one reading.
Passive se versus impersonal se
Passive se requires a transitive verb and a patient subject that controls agreement. Impersonal se has no such subject and remains third-person singular: Aquí es treballa bé “People work well here.” With a plural patient, the contrast is visible:
En aquest taller es restauren mobles antics.
Antique furniture pieces are restored in this workshop. (passive; plural agreement)
En aquest taller es treballa amb eines tradicionals.
In this workshop, people work with traditional tools. (impersonal; singular verb)
Human, definite, and prepositionally marked complements often favor an impersonal analysis; that full boundary belongs on the next page, impersonal se. For this page, the operational rule is firm: when an unmarked noun phrase is the patient subject, make the verb agree.
Other weak pronouns
Passive es stands before the finite verb and combines with ordinary weak pronouns in the normal cluster order. The partitive en is especially common when the patient quantity is left implicit:
D'aquest model ja no se'n fabriquen tants com abans.
Not as many of this model are manufactured now as before.
De places gratuïtes, se'n reservaran cinc per a estudiants.
Of the free places, five will be reserved for students.
The visible numeral or quantifier controls agreement where appropriate: se'n fabrica un; se'n fabriquen dos. Before a vowel, es becomes s' (s'aprova), but in se'n the apostrophe joins se and en according to the fixed clitic combination.
Negation and information order
Negation precedes the clitic: no es/s' + verb. Adverbs may focus the event or patient without altering agreement.
Encara no s'han confirmat les dates de les proves orals.
The dates of the oral exams have not yet been confirmed.
The patient may precede the verb when already topical—Les dates encara no s'han confirmat—or follow it when introduced as new information—Encara no s'han confirmat les dates. Both maintain plural han because les dates is the subject.
Mini-dialogue
—On es recullen les acreditacions? —Es lliuren al taulell de l'entrada a partir de les nou.
—Where are the badges collected? —They are handed out at the entrance desk from nine onward.
—I les sessions de la tarda? —Encara no s'han assignat les sales.
—And the afternoon sessions? —The rooms haven't been assigned yet.
The dialogue uses passive se because procedures and pending assignments matter more than the staff carrying them out.
Regional and register notes
Passive se is standard across Central, Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese Catalan. Regional verbal endings follow each standard variety, but singular–plural agreement with the patient remains the normative pattern. In spontaneous (informal) speech, speakers may produce invariant singular forms before plural postverbal nouns under contact influence or because the subject is misparsed; careful spoken and written Catalan preserves agreement. The construction is equally available in neutral, (formal), journalistic, administrative, and (academic) registers.
Common Mistakes
❌ Es ven entrades anticipades per internet.
Incorrect in standard Catalan — the plural patient requires plural agreement.
✅ Es venen entrades anticipades per internet.
Advance tickets are sold online.
❌ Es van aprovar les bases pel patronat.
Incorrect if pel patronat is intended as an agent — passive se suppresses the agent.
✅ Les bases van ser aprovades pel patronat.
The rules were approved by the board of trustees.
❌ S'accepten el pagament amb targeta.
Incorrect — a singular patient requires a singular verb.
✅ S'accepta el pagament amb targeta.
Payment by card is accepted.
❌ No accepten-se canvis després de trenta dies.
Incorrect placement — passive es precedes a finite verb and follows no.
✅ No s'accepten canvis després de trenta dies.
Exchanges are not accepted after thirty days.
❌ Les jaquetes es van venut en una hora.
Incorrect periphrastic-past form — use van plus infinitive, not participle.
✅ Les jaquetes es van vendre en una hora.
The jackets were sold within an hour.
Key Takeaways
- Passive es/s' combines with a third-person verb whose subject is the patient.
- The verb agrees with that patient: es ven una entrada; es venen entrades.
- The construction does not admit an expressed passive agent; use an active clause or ser passive when the agent matters.
- Context distinguishes passive se from reflexive, middle, anticausative, and impersonal uses.
- Passive se is especially natural for procedures, notices, advertisements, and presentational clauses with a postverbal patient.
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- The Ser PassiveB2 — Build and use the Catalan ser passive with agreement and per agents, while choosing it only when patient-centered information structure justifies it.
- Impersonal SeB2 — Use impersonal es with a third-person singular verb to describe what people do when the human agent is generic or deliberately left unnamed.
- Impersonal Third-Person PluralB2 — Use an agentless third-person plural verb when unnamed people, officials, workers, or other human actors perform the action.
- Middle and Anticausative SeB2 — Use Catalan se to present a change, disposition, or accidental event without profiling an external causer.
- Reflexive Weak PronounsA2 — Use em, et, es, ens, and us when an action returns to its subject, including body-care patterns and strong self-forms.
- Presentational and Inversion ConstructionsB2 — Place discourse-new subjects after appearance, movement, and other unaccusative verbs, and distinguish presentational inversion from topicalization and the passive.