The ser-passive (voz passiva analítica) is Portuguese's exact structural twin of the English passive: a form of ser ("to be") plus a past participle. A casa foi construída em 1950 — "The house was built in 1950." The grammar maps onto English so cleanly that English speakers reach for it constantly. The catch is pragmatic, not grammatical: in everyday Brazilian speech this construction sounds stiff and bookish, and natives route around it. This page teaches you to build the ser-passive correctly and to know when not to.
How it works
The formula is fixed:
ser (in any tense) + past participle (agreeing with the subject in gender and number)
The tense lives in ser; the participle carries the lexical meaning. This is the single most important thing to internalize: in active voice the verb does both jobs, but in the passive they split. Construiu (built) becomes foi construída — ser takes the past tense, construir freezes into a participle.
| Active | Passive | English |
|---|---|---|
| Construíram a casa. | A casa foi construída. | The house was built. |
| Vão enviar as cartas. | As cartas serão enviadas. | The letters will be sent. |
| Muitos leem o livro. | O livro é lido por muitos. | The book is read by many. |
A casa foi construída em 1950.
The house was built in 1950.
As cartas serão enviadas amanhã de manhã.
The letters will be sent tomorrow morning.
O livro é lido por muitos estudantes em todo o país.
The book is read by many students all over the country.
Participle agreement — the part English speakers forget
Because English participles never inflect ("built" is "built" no matter what), English speakers routinely leave the Portuguese participle in its bare masculine-singular form. But the ser-passive participle is grammatically an adjective describing the subject, so it must agree in gender and number. Get this wrong and the sentence is simply ungrammatical.
| Subject | Participle (construir) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masc. singular | construído | O prédio foi construído. |
| fem. singular | construída | A casa foi construída. |
| masc. plural | construídos | Os prédios foram construídos. |
| fem. plural | construídas | As casas foram construídas. |
Notice that ser also agrees with the subject in number — foi (singular) versus foram (plural). So a plural feminine subject triggers two changes at once: foram construídas.
Os documentos foram assinados pelo diretor.
The documents were signed by the director.
As propostas foram aprovadas por unanimidade.
The proposals were approved unanimously.
Naming the agent: por, pelo, pela
The doer of the action — the "by" phrase in English — is introduced with the preposition por. When por meets a definite article it contracts, exactly as it does everywhere else in Portuguese:
| por + article | Contraction |
|---|---|
| por + o | pelo |
| por + a | pela |
| por + os | pelos |
| por + as | pelas |
O quadro foi pintado por um artista desconhecido.
The painting was painted by an unknown artist.
A lei foi aprovada pelo Congresso na semana passada.
The law was passed by Congress last week.
A vítima foi socorrida pelos bombeiros.
The victim was rescued by the firefighters.
As in English, the agent is optional. O livro foi publicado em 2020 ("The book was published in 2020") is perfectly complete without saying by whom — and omitting the agent is in fact the most common reason to choose the passive at all: it lets you talk about the action while ignoring who did it.
The ser-passive across tenses
Since the tense rides on ser, you can place a passive in any tense simply by conjugating ser. The participle stays put.
| Tense | ser + participle | English |
|---|---|---|
| Present | é vendido | is sold |
| Preterite | foi vendido | was sold |
| Imperfect | era vendido | was (being) sold |
| Future | será vendido | will be sold |
| Present perfect | tem sido vendido | has been sold |
| Conditional | seria vendido | would be sold |
O relatório será entregue até sexta-feira.
The report will be handed in by Friday.
Why Brazilians dodge it in speech
Here is the insight that no conjugation table will give you. Structurally the ser-passive is clean and easy. Pragmatically it is restricted. In spoken Brazilian Portuguese it sounds formal, written, almost journalistic — the register of news anchors, contracts, and police reports, not of friends talking. A Brazilian narrating their day will almost never say fui acordado pelo barulho (I was woken by the noise); they will say o barulho me acordou (the noise woke me) or acordei com o barulho.
So while English uses the passive freely in casual speech ("I was told to wait," "my car got towed"), translating those directly into ser-passives produces sentences that are grammatical but tonally off. The natural Brazilian equivalents lean on:
- Active voice, often with an impersonal third-person plural: me disseram para esperar ("they told me to wait" — see the impersonal 3pl page).
- The se-passive, especially for things, signs, and announcements: vende-se ("for sale").
Me mandaram esperar lá fora.
I was told to wait outside. (lit. 'They told me to wait outside.')
Meu carro foi guinchado.
My car got towed. (ser-passive — acceptable, but slightly formal in speech)
Ser-passive versus estar + participle
Do not confuse the action passive (ser) with the resultant-state description (estar). A porta foi fechada describes the event of someone closing the door; a porta está fechada describes the door's current state (it is shut). English collapses both into "the door was closed," which is why this trips learners up.
A loja foi fechada pela prefeitura.
The store was shut down by the city hall. (an action happened)
A loja está fechada aos domingos.
The store is closed on Sundays. (a state)
Common Mistakes
❌ As casas foi construído em 1950.
Incorrect — neither ser nor the participle agrees with the plural feminine subject.
✅ As casas foram construídas em 1950.
The houses were built in 1950.
❌ A proposta foi aprovado pelo comitê.
Incorrect — the participle must be feminine to match 'a proposta'.
✅ A proposta foi aprovada pelo comitê.
The proposal was approved by the committee.
❌ O livro foi escrito por o autor.
Incorrect — 'por' must contract with the article into 'pelo'.
✅ O livro foi escrito pelo autor.
The book was written by the author.
❌ A janela foi quebrada, então não consigo abrir. (intending a present state)
Incorrect register — the ser-passive describes the event of breaking, not the current state.
✅ A janela está quebrada, então não consigo abrir.
The window is broken, so I can't open it.
❌ Fui falado que a reunião foi cancelada.
Incorrect — 'falar' does not passivize this way; this is an English calque.
✅ Me falaram que a reunião foi cancelada.
I was told the meeting was cancelled. (impersonal 3pl in speech)
Key Takeaways
- The ser-passive is ser + past participle; tense lives on ser, meaning lives on the participle.
- The participle agrees with the subject in gender and number: foi construído / construída / construídos / construídas.
- The agent is introduced by por, which contracts to pelo / pela / pelos / pelas.
- Distinguish the action passive (ser) from the state description (estar).
- It is grammatically simple but pragmatically formal — in conversation Brazilians prefer active voice or the se-passive.
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
- Passive and Impersonal Voice: OverviewB1 — A map of the many ways Brazilian Portuguese expresses passive and impersonal meaning — and why speakers overwhelmingly avoid the true passive in favor of active circumlocutions.
- 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.
- Past Participle Agreement RulesB1 — When Portuguese past participles agree in gender and number with a noun, and the one case where they never do.
- Estar in Resultative PassiveB1 — Estar plus a past participle describes the resulting state of a finished action — the door is open, the car is parked — and why Brazilians use it far more than the ser-passive.
- Preposition 'Por': By, Through, For (cause)A2 — How 'por' marks cause, means, path, duration, exchange, and the passive agent — and why it always contracts with the article into pelo/pela.