A passive sentence flips the normal subject–object relationship: instead of saying who did something, you put the thing that was done to at the front and push the doer into the background — or drop the doer entirely. English leans on the passive heavily ("The house was sold," "Mistakes were made"). Brazilian Portuguese has a full passive system, but it uses it far more sparingly than English does — in everyday speech, Brazilians constantly recast passives back into active sentences with a vague subject. Understanding both the formal passive machinery and this strong colloquial preference is the key to sounding natural rather than translated. This page treats the passive at the sentence level; for the conjugation details of each form, see the verb pages linked at the bottom.
The ser-passive: A foi feito por B
The full, explicit passive uses ser + past participle, with the agent introduced by por (which contracts: por + o = pelo, por + a = pela). The participle agrees in gender and number with the subject — this is the part English speakers forget, since English participles never change.
subject + ser (any tense) + particípio + por/pelo/pela + agent
A casa foi vendida por R$500 mil.
The house was sold for R$500,000.
O relatório foi escrito pela diretora.
The report was written by the director.
As fotos foram tiradas por um fotógrafo profissional.
The photos were taken by a professional photographer.
Note vendida (feminine, agreeing with casa) and foram tiradas (feminine plural, agreeing with fotos). The tense lives in ser: é feito (is done), foi feito (was done), será feito (will be done), tinha sido feito (had been done).
| Tense of ser | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| present | O bolo é feito com fubá. | The cake is made with cornmeal. |
| preterite | O contrato foi assinado ontem. | The contract was signed yesterday. |
| future | A obra será concluída em 2027. | The construction will be completed in 2027. |
| pluperfect | A decisão já tinha sido tomada. | The decision had already been made. |
The ser-passive is the natural choice in (formal) registers: news reports, legal and administrative texts, academic writing, and any context where you genuinely want to foreground the result or name a specific agent.
O projeto de lei foi aprovado por unanimidade na Câmara.
The bill was approved unanimously in the lower house. (news register)
The se-passive: agentless and impersonal
When there is no specific agent — when "someone" or "people in general" does the action — Brazilian Portuguese uses the se-passive (also called the passive se or voz passiva sintética). The structure is verb + se, and the verb agrees with the noun:
Aluga-se casa para a temporada.
House for rent for the season.
Vende-se carro seminovo, único dono.
Used car for sale, one owner.
Aqui se fala português e espanhol.
Portuguese and Spanish are spoken here.
You see these constantly on signs, classified ads, and shop windows. Grammatically, the noun is the subject, so a plural noun triggers a plural verb: Vende-se carro but Vendem-se carros (cars for sale). In careful writing this agreement is required; in casual speech many Brazilians leave the verb singular (Vende-se carros), which is widespread but considered nonstandard.
You cannot add an agent with por to a se-passive. The moment you want to name the doer, you must switch to the ser-passive: not Vende-se a casa pelo dono, but A casa foi vendida pelo dono.
The everyday preference: recast to active
Here is the single most important thing for an English speaker to absorb: in ordinary conversation, Brazilians usually avoid the passive altogether and recast the sentence as active, using a vague third-person-plural verb ("they") with no stated subject. English-speakers, primed to reach for the passive, sound bookish when they over-use ser + particípio in speech.
Roubaram meu carro ontem à noite.
My car was stolen last night. (lit. 'They stole my car')
Construíram um shopping novo perto de casa.
A new mall was built near my place. (lit. 'They built...')
Falaram que a loja vai fechar.
It's said the store is going to close. (lit. 'They said...')
Saying Meu carro foi roubado ontem à noite is grammatically perfect, but in casual speech it sounds like a police report. The natural spoken version is Roubaram meu carro — an active sentence with an unstated "they" that nobody takes literally. This vague-subject active is doing the same job English does with the agentless passive.
So the decision tree for a passive idea is:
| Situation | Brazilian default | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Casual speech, agentless | active with vague 3pl | Roubaram meu celular. |
| Sign / ad, agentless | se-passive | Vende-se / Aluga-se |
| Formal writing, named agent | ser-passive with por | O texto foi revisado pelo editor. |
| Formal writing, no agent | se-passive or ser-passive | Os dados foram coletados em 2025. |
When the passive really is natural
Don't overcorrect into thinking the ser-passive is "wrong" — it is fully standard and often the best choice. Use it when:
- You want to highlight the result and the agent is genuinely important: O quadro foi pintado por Portinari.
- You are writing news, reports, or formal prose: A vítima foi socorrida pelos bombeiros.
- The agent is impersonal but worth naming: A cidade foi fundada pelos portugueses.
A vítima foi socorrida pelos bombeiros e levada ao hospital.
The victim was helped by the firefighters and taken to the hospital. (news register)
Esse prédio foi projetado por Oscar Niemeyer.
This building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer.
Common Mistakes
❌ A casa foi vendido por R$500 mil.
Incorrect — participle doesn't agree with feminine 'casa'
✅ A casa foi vendida por R$500 mil.
The house was sold for R$500,000.
The participle in a ser-passive must agree with the subject in gender and number — a reflex English speakers lack entirely.
❌ Meu carro foi roubado ontem. (chatting with a friend)
Grammatical but unnaturally formal in casual speech
✅ Roubaram meu carro ontem.
My car was stolen yesterday.
In conversation, recast agentless passives as active sentences with a vague "they." The ser-passive sounds like a written report.
❌ Vende-se a casa pelo proprietário.
Incorrect — you can't add a 'por' agent to a se-passive
✅ A casa foi vendida pelo proprietário.
The house was sold by the owner.
If you need to name the agent, switch to the ser-passive. The se-passive is agentless by definition.
❌ Vende-se apartamentos no centro.
Nonstandard — verb should agree with plural 'apartamentos'
✅ Vendem-se apartamentos no centro.
Apartments for sale downtown.
In careful/written Portuguese, the verb in a se-passive agrees with the noun: Vendem-se apartamentos. (The singular is common in speech but avoided in formal writing.)
❌ O bolo está feito pela minha avó.
Incorrect — 'estar' marks a state, not the passive action
✅ O bolo foi feito pela minha avó.
The cake was made by my grandmother.
The passive of action uses ser. Estar + particípio describes a resulting state (A porta está fechada = the door is closed), not the action of an agent.
Key Takeaways
- ser + particípio + por/pelo/pela = full passive; the participle agrees with the subject; tense lives in ser.
- verb + se = agentless passive for signs, ads, and general statements; the verb agrees with the noun.
- In casual speech, recast agentless passives as active with a vague 3pl (Roubaram meu carro).
- Reserve the ser-passive for formal writing or when the agent genuinely matters.
- Estar + particípio is a state, not the passive — don't confuse it with ser + particípio.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Ser-Passive (Formal Passive Voice)B1 — How to form the analytic passive with ser plus past participle, why the participle agrees with the subject, and why Brazilians rarely use it in speech.
- Se-Passive (Sintética Passive)A2 — The passive with se plus a third-person verb that agrees with the logical object — vende-se, alugam-se — and why Brazilians often skip the agreement.
- Why BR Speakers Avoid the Ser-PassiveB2 — Brazilian Portuguese strongly prefers active voice over the ser-passive — why, where the passive survives, and how to translate English passives naturally.
- Advanced Passive ConstructionsB2 — Agentless passives, passive infinitives, passives in compound tenses, and the se-passive — plus why colloquial BR recasts almost all of them as active.
- Ser in Passive VoiceB1 — How ser plus a past participle builds the true passive voice in Portuguese, why the participle agrees with the subject, and why Brazilians often avoid it in speech.