There is a difference between the door was opened and the door is open. The first reports an event — someone opened it. The second describes a situation — it's open right now, and we don't care who did it. Portuguese marks this difference with the auxiliary: ser + participle for the action, estar + participle for the resulting state. This page drills the estar-resultative, which is Brazil's everyday workhorse for describing how things have ended up.
The formula: estar + past participle
Take estar, conjugate it for whatever tense you need, and add a past participle that agrees with the subject. The result describes the state that exists as the result of a completed action.
estar (tensed) + past participle (agreeing with the subject)
A porta está aberta.
The door is open. (result of someone having opened it)
O carro está estacionado na garagem.
The car is parked in the garage.
A tarefa já está terminada.
The task is already finished.
In each case, some action happened earlier — opening, parking, finishing — and what you're reporting now is the condition that remains. You're not narrating the event; you're describing the aftermath. English does the same thing with to be + participle/adjective ("is open," "is parked," "is finished"), which makes this construction unusually friendly to English speakers.
Participle agreement still applies
Just as with the ser-passive, the participle behaves like an adjective and agrees in gender and number with the subject.
A janela está fechada.
The window is closed. (feminine singular → fechada)
As janelas estão fechadas.
The windows are closed. (feminine plural → fechadas)
O documento está assinado.
The document is signed. (masculine singular → assinado)
Os documentos estão assinados.
The documents are signed. (masculine plural → assinados)
The crucial contrast: ser (action) vs estar (state)
This is the whole point of the page, so let it land clearly. The same participle sits in both constructions; swapping the auxiliary flips the meaning between event and condition.
| ser-passive (action) | estar-resultative (state) |
|---|---|
| A porta foi aberta pelo segurança. | A porta está aberta. |
| The door was opened by the guard. | The door is open. |
| O problema foi resolvido pela equipe. | O problema está resolvido. |
| The problem was solved by the team. | The problem is solved. |
A carta foi escrita ontem, e agora está escrita e pronta para enviar.
The letter was written yesterday, and now it's written and ready to send.
That single sentence holds both: foi escrita narrates the writing event; está escrita describes the finished-letter state. The litmus test:
- Can you naturally add "by someone" (por alguém) and a moment of action? → ser (the action happened).
- Are you just describing how things currently are, with no interest in who or when? → estar (the state exists).
O bolo já está pronto, pode tirar do forno.
The cake is ready now, you can take it out of the oven.
Tudo está organizado para a viagem de amanhã.
Everything is organized for tomorrow's trip.
Why this is Brazil's default
In real Brazilian speech, the estar-resultative vastly outnumbers the ser-passive. The reason is psychological and practical: most of the time, people care about the current situation, not about narrating who performed an action in the passive voice. "Is the door open?" "Is dinner ready?" "Is the bill paid?" — these are all about states, and they all take estar.
Você já está acordado? São só seis da manhã!
You're already awake? It's only six in the morning!
A conta está paga, não precisa se preocupar.
The bill is paid, you don't need to worry.
Because the formal ser-passive feels stiff in conversation (see its own page), the estar-resultative quietly does much of the work English assigns to the get-passive and the be-passive together. When an English speaker would say "the window's broken," "the table's set," "the kids are dressed" — all states — Brazilian Portuguese reaches for estar + participle.
A mesa já está posta, o jantar está servido.
The table is already set, dinner is served.
A note on irregular participles
Some verbs have a special "short" participle used precisely in these adjective-like estar constructions, distinct from the regular one used in compound tenses. For example, pagar gives both pagado (used with ter/haver) and pago (used with ser/estar). With estar, you almost always want the short form.
A conta está paga.
The bill is paid. (short participle pago, not pagado)
As luzes estão acesas.
The lights are on. (short participle aceso from acender)
This double-participle system is covered in depth on its own reference page; for now, just know that with estar the irregular short form is usually the right one.
Common Mistakes
❌ A porta foi aberta. (when you just mean it's currently open)
This narrates an action with an implied doer; for the current state use estar.
✅ A porta está aberta.
The door is open.
❌ As janelas estão fechado.
Participle doesn't agree — janelas is feminine plural, so it must be fechadas.
✅ As janelas estão fechadas.
The windows are closed.
❌ O jantar é servido. (announcing that dinner is ready now)
Ser + participle reads as a general/habitual passive ('dinner is served, as a rule'), not 'it's ready right now.'
✅ O jantar está servido.
Dinner is served.
❌ A conta está pagada.
With estar, use the short participle pago, not pagado.
✅ A conta está paga.
The bill is paid.
❌ O problema está resolvido pela equipe.
If you name the agent with por, you're describing the action, which needs ser.
✅ O problema foi resolvido pela equipe.
The problem was solved by the team.
Key Takeaways
- Estar
- past participle describes the resulting state of a finished action: A porta está aberta.
- The participle agrees in gender and number with the subject (aberta, abertas, aberto, abertos).
- Contrast with ser
- participle: foi aberta = the action; está aberta = the state. Naming an agent with por forces ser.
- This estar-resultative is Brazil's everyday default for describing situations — far more common in speech than the formal ser-passive.
- With estar, prefer the short irregular participle where one exists (pago, aceso), not the long -ado/-ido form.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Estar for Temporary States and ConditionsA1 — When to use estar in Brazilian Portuguese — temporary states, moods, current weather, the location of movable things, and the progressive — plus the colloquial tô/tá forms.
- 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.
- Ficar in Stative Passive (Change Resultative)B1 — Ficar plus a past participle expresses 'becoming + done' — got hurt, got tired, got annoyed — the change-of-state passive that maps cleanly onto English's get-passive.
- Past Participle as AdjectiveA2 — How Brazilian Portuguese past participles work as adjectives — agreeing in gender and number with the noun they describe — and how recognizing them as participles expands your vocabulary.
- Past Participle Agreement RulesB1 — When Portuguese past participles agree in gender and number with a noun, and the one case where they never do.