English leans hard on the passive voice: "the car was stolen," "English is spoken here," "mistakes were made." Brazilian Portuguese has all the equivalent machinery — but it uses it far less. This page is a map of the six main ways Brazilian Portuguese expresses passive and impersonal meaning, with the single most important takeaway up front: Brazilians strongly prefer active-voice circumlocutions over true passives. Where an English speaker says "my car was stolen," a Brazilian almost always says roubaram meu carro — literally "(they) stole my car." Each pattern below has its own dedicated page; this overview shows how they fit together and when to choose each.
The big picture: active beats passive
Before the catalogue, internalize the cultural-grammatical fact that organizes everything: the ser-passive is largely confined to writing in Brazil — news, contracts, formal reports. In speech, Brazilians reach for an active construction with a vague or omitted subject. This is the opposite reflex from English, where the passive is a natural spoken option.
Roubaram meu carro ontem à noite.
My car got stolen last night. (lit. '(they) stole my car')
Falaram que a loja vai fechar.
Word is the store is going to close. (lit. '(they) said that...')
1. The ser-passive (formal true passive)
This is the textbook passive: ser + past participle, with the agent optionally introduced by por. The participle agrees in gender and number with the subject.
A carta foi escrita por Maria.
The letter was written by Maria. (formal/written)
Os documentos foram assinados pelo diretor.
The documents were signed by the director. (formal/written)
Note the agreement: carta is feminine singular, so escrita; documentos is masculine plural, so assinados. This agreement is the chief difference from the English participle, which never changes. The ser-passive belongs to formal and written register. Full details: Ser-Passive.
2. The estar-passive (resultative state)
Where the ser-passive describes an action ("the window was opened — someone opened it"), the estar-passive describes the resulting state ("the window is open"). It uses estar + participle and answers "what condition is it in now?"
A janela está aberta.
The window is open. (a resulting state)
O problema já está resolvido.
The problem is already solved.
This is the difference between A janela foi aberta (someone performed the action of opening it) and A janela está aberta (it is now in an open state). English collapses both into "is open / was opened" depending on context; Portuguese keeps them grammatically distinct. See Estar in Resultative Passive.
3. The ficar-passive (change of state)
Ficar + participle adds a third nuance: the transition into a state, often with an emotional or consequential color. Ficar means "to become/end up," so the construction stresses that a change occurred.
Ele ficou ferido no acidente.
He got injured in the accident.
A casa ficou destruída depois da enchente.
The house was left destroyed after the flood.
Compare the three "to be" verbs: foi ferido (the action of injuring), está ferido (currently in an injured state), ficou ferido (became injured, with focus on the change). See Ficar in Stative Passive and the Ser, Estar, Ficar overview.
4. The se-passive and se-impersonal
The particle se creates two closely related constructions that are the workhorses of signs, ads, and generic statements.
The se-passive (passiva sintética) attaches se to a transitive verb that agrees with a plural noun, conveying a passive meaning without naming an agent:
Vendem-se carros usados.
Used cars for sale. (lit. 'cars sell themselves' = cars are sold)
Alugam-se quartos para estudantes.
Rooms for rent for students.
Here the verb agrees with the plural noun: carros → vendem-se, quartos → alugam-se. (You will very often see the non-agreeing colloquial vende-se carros — extremely common in real signage, though the prescriptive norm is vendem-se carros.)
The se-impersonal uses se with an intransitive verb or a verb plus preposition, with no subject at all and the verb fixed in the third person singular:
Aqui se fala inglês.
English is spoken here. / People speak English here.
Não se pode fumar dentro do prédio.
You can't smoke inside the building.
For the distinction, see Se-Passive and Se-Impersonal.
5. Active with an impersonal "they" (3rd person plural)
This is the most common spoken alternative to the passive. A bare third-person-plural verb, with no expressed subject, means a generic "they / people / someone" — exactly English's "they say."
Falam que vai chover hoje.
They say it's going to rain today.
Construíram um shopping novo perto de casa.
They built a new mall near my place.
There is no pronoun like eles here — the plural ending alone carries the generic-agent meaning. This is the construction that lets Brazilians sidestep the passive entirely. See Impersonal 3pl.
6. A gente as a generalized agent
Colloquially, a gente ("we / people in general") often stands in for a generic subject, taking singular agreement.
Quando a gente quebra uma janela, tem que pagar.
When you break a window, you have to pay for it. (general 'you/one')
Here a gente quebra generalizes the agent much as English uses an indefinite "you" or "one." Note the singular verb quebra, never quebramos. See A Gente in Impersonal Use.
Quick decision guide
| You want to express… | Use… | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A formal passive, agent known/named | ser + participle (+ por) | A carta foi escrita por Maria. |
| A current resulting state | estar + participle | A janela está aberta. |
| A change into a state | ficar + participle | Ele ficou ferido. |
| An agentless passive (signs, ads) | se-passive | Vendem-se carros. |
| A generic "one / people" | se-impersonal | Aqui se fala inglês. |
| A casual passive in speech | 3pl active "they" | Roubaram meu carro. |
| A general "you / we" | a gente + singular verb | A gente nunca sabe. |
Common mistakes
❌ Meu carro foi roubado ontem (in casual conversation).
Not wrong grammatically, but unnatural in speech — Brazilians say it actively.
✅ Roubaram meu carro ontem.
My car got stolen yesterday.
Overusing the ser-passive in conversation. It is grammatical but sounds stiff and translated; the active 3pl is the natural spoken form.
❌ A carta foi escrito por Maria.
Incorrect — the participle must agree with the feminine subject 'carta'.
✅ A carta foi escrita por Maria.
The letter was written by Maria.
Forgetting participle agreement in the ser-passive. Unlike English, the participle changes for gender and number: escrita (fem.), escrito (masc.), escritas, escritos.
❌ A janela foi aberta agora (meaning it is currently open).
Confuses the action (ser) with the state (estar).
✅ A janela está aberta.
The window is open. (describing the current state)
Using the ser-passive when you mean a resulting state. Foi aberta describes the act of opening; está aberta describes the open condition now.
❌ É falado inglês aqui.
Unnatural — the se-impersonal is the idiomatic way to say this.
✅ Fala-se inglês aqui.
English is spoken here.
Building a clunky ser-passive for a generic statement instead of the natural se-impersonal fala-se.
❌ Quando a gente quebramos uma janela...
Incorrect — 'a gente' always takes a singular verb.
✅ Quando a gente quebra uma janela...
When you break a window...
Giving a gente a first-person-plural verb. Grammatically a gente is third-person singular: a gente quebra, a gente sabe, a gente vai.
Key takeaways
- Brazilian Portuguese has a full passive system but prefers active circumlocutions, especially in speech.
- The ser-passive (with agreeing participle) is formal/written; the everyday spoken equivalent is the 3pl active "they."
- Distinguish ser (action) from estar (resulting state) from ficar (change of state) with the same participle.
- The se constructions handle agentless passives and generic statements on signs and in formal prose.
- A gente generalizes the agent and always takes a singular verb.
Now practice Portuguese
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
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.
- Se-ImpersonalB1 — The impersonal se for generic 'one/people' — trabalha-se muito, como se diz — and how it differs from the se-passive.
- Impersonal 3pl (Falam que...)B1 — The third-person plural with no subject for 'they/people/someone' — falam que, dizem que, bateram na porta — Brazil's everyday way to report hearsay and unknown agents.
- A Gente in Impersonal/Generic UseA2 — How a gente works as a generic 'one/people' pronoun (distinct from its 'we' meaning), why the verb stays third-person singular, and how context tells the two apart.
- 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.