The Portuguese passive is not one construction but a system of three overlapping structures — each with its own register, its own grammatical constraints, and its own range of acceptable subjects. The ser passive (foi escrito por), the se-passive (vendem-se casas), and the impersonal se (vive-se bem aqui) all exist, all carry different nuances, and all interact differently with perfect tenses, modal verbs, and agent phrases. On top of that, Portuguese speakers often prefer to avoid the passive altogether, using 3rd-person plural indefinites (dizem que...) or the impersonal a gente construction as naturalistic alternatives.
This page is the advanced, C1-level treatment. It assumes you already know the basics of passive formation (see the passive overview) and focuses on the harder territory: when each construction is appropriate, how they combine with compound tenses, how they differ from Spanish, and the stylistic conventions that govern their use in formal and journalistic Portuguese.
The three passives at a glance
| Construction | Form | Subject | Agent | Register |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ser-passive | ser
| Patient (raised to subject) | Optional, with por | Formal to neutral |
| Se-passive | se
| Patient (agrees with verb) | Impossible | Neutral, very common |
| Impersonal se | se
| No explicit subject | Impossible | Neutral |
The three constructions are not interchangeable. They express different things and occupy different niches:
- The ser-passive is the Portuguese equivalent of the English be-passive: it foregrounds the patient and (optionally) names the agent.
- The se-passive is a reduced passive without an agent — it marks that something was done to something, without any interest in who did it. The verb agrees with the patient.
- The impersonal se is a true impersonal — it says one does / people do without naming anyone. The verb is always 3rd singular.
The trick is recognising which one a given sentence needs.
1. The ser-passive: foregrounding the patient with an explicit agent
Form
Ser (in any tense) + past participle (agreeing in gender and number with the subject).
A carta foi escrita pela secretária.
The letter was written by the secretary.
As propostas serão analisadas amanhã.
The proposals will be examined tomorrow.
Os documentos tinham sido assinados na véspera.
The documents had been signed the day before.
Este edifício foi projetado por um arquiteto italiano.
This building was designed by an Italian architect.
When the ser-passive is the right choice
The ser-passive is appropriate when at least one of the following is true:
- You want to foreground the patient — usually because it is the topic of the discourse.
- You need to name the agent with a por phrase.
- The sentence is in a formal, journalistic, or academic register where the ser-passive is conventional.
- The verb does not accept the se-passive (some verbs resist the clitic).
O projeto foi aprovado por unanimidade.
The project was approved unanimously.
A paciente foi operada pelo Dr. Mendes.
The patient was operated on by Dr. Mendes.
A decisão será comunicada aos interessados amanhã.
The decision will be communicated to those concerned tomorrow.
The agent phrase: por or por parte de
The agent is introduced by por (often contracted: pelo, pela, pelos, pelas). In formal or bureaucratic writing, you may also see por parte de for extra formality.
A lei foi aprovada pela Assembleia da República.
The law was passed by the Assembly of the Republic.
As medidas foram anunciadas por parte do governo.
The measures were announced by the government.
Avoid the archaic alternative de as an agent marker (foi amada de todos — literary/old). In modern Portuguese it survives only with specific verbs and set phrases: conhecido de todos, amado de muitos.
Ser vs estar + past participle
One of the most famous distinctions in Portuguese: ser + past participle = action passive; estar + past participle = resulting state.
A porta foi fechada às dez. (action: someone closed it at ten)
The door was closed at ten. (action)
A porta estava fechada às dez. (state: it was in the closed state)
The door was closed at ten. (state)
This distinction has no simple equivalent in English — the door was closed is ambiguous between both readings. Portuguese forces the speaker to choose. See voice and valency for the full treatment.
2. The se-passive: the agentless patient-focused passive
Form
Se + verb in 3rd singular or 3rd plural, agreeing with the patient. The patient appears as a grammatical subject.
Vendem-se casas.
Houses for sale. (literally: houses are sold)
Aluga-se apartamento.
Apartment for rent.
Publicaram-se os resultados na página oficial.
The results were published on the official page.
Construiu-se uma ponte nova no ano passado.
A new bridge was built last year.
Note the agreement: vendem-se casas (plural verb, plural patient), aluga-se apartamento (singular verb, singular patient), publicaram-se os resultados (plural verb, plural patient).
The defining trait: no agent
The se-passive cannot have a por agent phrase. This is the key grammatical line between se-passive and ser-passive: if you want to name who did it, you must use ser.
✅ Vendeu-se a casa rapidamente.
The house sold quickly. (no agent, se-passive OK)
❌ Vendeu-se a casa por uma agência.
Incorrect — se-passive cannot take 'por'.
✅ A casa foi vendida por uma agência.
The house was sold by an agency. (agent needed → ser-passive)
Clitic placement and proclise triggers
In European Portuguese, the se is normally enclitic (after the verb, attached with a hyphen) unless a proclisis trigger precedes the verb: não, nunca, que, subordinators, negative adverbs, talvez, etc.
Nunca se pagaram tantos impostos.
So many taxes have never been paid.
Já se sabe a resposta.
The answer is already known.
É evidente que se cometeram erros.
It's clear that mistakes were made.
See proclise triggers for the full list.
In compound tenses
The se-passive in compound tenses is built with ter + past participle, with se clitic-placed according to the usual rules. The past participle is invariable in compound tenses — patient agreement shows up on the finite form of ter (têm vs. tem, tinham vs. tinha), not on the participle itself.
Nos últimos anos, têm-se publicado muitos estudos sobre o tema.
In recent years, many studies on the subject have been published.
Já se tinham comprado os bilhetes antes de chegarmos.
The tickets had already been bought before we arrived.
3. The impersonal se: one/people without a specified subject
Form
Se + verb in 3rd singular only. No explicit subject. The verb is typically intransitive or followed by a prepositional complement.
Vive-se bem aqui.
One lives well here. / Life is good here.
Fala-se muito deste tema.
People talk a lot about this subject.
Trabalha-se demasiado nas grandes cidades.
One works too much in big cities.
Aqui precisa-se de silêncio.
Silence is needed here.
The tell-tale: verb stays singular with plural object
The critical test distinguishing impersonal se from se-passive: in the impersonal, the verb remains third singular regardless of what follows. In the se-passive, it would agree with a plural patient.
Compare:
Vendem-se casas. (se-passive: 'casas' is subject, verb agrees plural)
Houses are sold.
Precisa-se de empregados. (impersonal: verb stays singular)
Employees needed.
Empregados here is introduced by de — it is the object of a preposition, not the subject. The verb stays singular.
This is prescriptive standard. In actual usage, speakers increasingly treat precisam-se as acceptable by analogy, but careful Portuguese keeps precisa-se singular.
Impersonal se with intransitives
Intransitive verbs cannot take a se-passive (there is no patient to raise to subject). They can only take the impersonal se.
Dorme-se mal neste hotel.
One sleeps badly at this hotel.
Morre-se de calor no verão.
One dies of heat in summer. / It's killing hot in summer.
Nem sempre se é feliz na vida.
One is not always happy in life.
Note the last example: se é feliz — ser itself in impersonal se, with feliz as the predicate adjective.
Contrast with the se-passive
Many Portuguese sentences look ambiguous between se-passive and impersonal se. The resolving test is agreement:
- If the verb agrees with a plural noun → se-passive.
- If the verb stays singular despite a plural noun → impersonal se (the noun is an object, not a subject).
Pintaram-se os muros no fim de semana. (passive: muros = subject)
The walls were painted over the weekend.
Pintou-se durante o fim de semana. (impersonal: no object)
Painting was done over the weekend.
Passive of compound tenses
Portuguese allows the passive in every compound tense, producing some hefty verb stacks. The rule is mechanical: you passivise the innermost verb.
| Active tense | Passive form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present perfect compound | tem sido
| Tem sido criticado por vários analistas. |
| Pluperfect compound | tinha sido
| A proposta tinha sido rejeitada em março. |
| Future | será
| Os resultados serão divulgados amanhã. |
| Future perfect | terá sido
| O assunto terá sido resolvido até sexta. |
| Conditional | seria
| A lei seria aprovada se houvesse maioria. |
| Conditional perfect | teria sido
| Teria sido melhor não ter dito nada. |
| Present subjunctive | seja
| Espero que o texto seja revisto. |
| Imperfect subjunctive | fosse
| Pediu que o relatório fosse enviado por email. |
Progressive passive: ser a + infinitive vs ser sendo
Portuguese generally prefers the estar a ser + participle construction for progressive passives, especially in European Portuguese:
A ponte está a ser construída desde março.
The bridge has been being built since March.
As reformas estão a ser preparadas pelo ministro.
The reforms are being prepared by the minister.
The alternative foi sendo + participle has a durative/iterative flavour — "was gradually being done" over an extended period:
A cidade foi sendo transformada ao longo de uma década.
The city was gradually transformed over a decade.
A tradição tem sido mantida ao longo dos séculos.
The tradition has been maintained over the centuries.
The ter sido + participle form is fully productive and appears frequently in journalistic Portuguese:
O acordo tem sido discutido há meses.
The agreement has been discussed for months.
Alternatives to the passive
A defining feature of natural Portuguese is that speakers avoid the passive when they can. Three alternatives do most of the work:
3rd-plural indefinite (dizem que...)
The most common workaround. A third-plural active verb with no explicit subject means people / they / one.
Dizem que vai chover amanhã.
They say it's going to rain tomorrow.
Roubaram-me a carteira no metro.
My wallet was stolen on the metro.
Contam que ele escreveu o livro em três meses.
They say he wrote the book in three months.
Portuguese uses this almost anywhere English would use a be-passive with no agent. In fact, the 3rd-plural indefinite is often the most natural choice — more natural than either ser-passive or se-passive.
A gente
In casual speech, a gente (literally "the people," but meaning "we/one") stands in for indefinite subjects:
A gente não sabe o que fazer.
We don't know what to do. / One doesn't know.
A gente diz que o clima está a mudar.
They say the climate is changing.
A gente is grammatically singular (agrees with 3sg verb), but its meaning is often plural — "we" collectively.
Nominalisations
Portuguese also avoids passives through nominalisation:
A construção da ponte começou em março.
The construction of the bridge began in March. (instead of 'the bridge began to be built')
A discussão do acordo levou meses.
The discussion of the agreement took months.
Spanish contrast: what not to carry over
Spanish speakers learning Portuguese often over-produce the se-passive. While both languages have it, the distribution differs:
- Spanish: Se venden casas is the default. The ser-passive is less common, almost bookish.
- Portuguese: Both exist and compete. Portuguese journalism uses ser-passive more readily than Spanish journalism.
More importantly, Portuguese keeps the participle agreement in passive structures more strictly than Spanish does in some colloquial uses. And the estar + participle state-passive is, if anything, more common in Portuguese than Spanish.
One pitfall: Spanish se le dijo la verdad (impersonal with dative) has no direct Portuguese equivalent — Portuguese would use disseram-lhe a verdade (3rd-plural indefinite) or a verdade foi-lhe dita (ser-passive with dative).
Disseram-lhe a verdade.
He was told the truth.
A verdade foi-lhe comunicada.
The truth was communicated to him.
Verbs that resist the passive
Some Portuguese verbs don't passivise well — usually because they are intransitive, psychological, or take a sentential complement.
- Psychological verbs: gostar de, precisar de, pertencer a — cannot be passivised.
- Verbs of existence: haver, existir — no passive.
- Modal verbs: poder, dever, querer — passive shifts to the embedded verb (pode ser feito, not é podido fazer).
❌ A resposta é sabida por todos. (odd)
Awkward — 'saber' resists the ser-passive.
✅ Todos sabem a resposta. / Sabe-se a resposta.
Everyone knows the answer. / The answer is known.
Register and stylistic conventions
- Journalism: heavy use of ser-passive, especially in headlines and lead sentences. Foi anunciado ontem que...
- Academic writing: prefers ser-passive and se-passive to keep the tone impersonal.
- Legal and bureaucratic texts: ser-passive dominates, often with stiffly formal agents (por parte de).
- Conversation: 3rd-plural indefinite and a gente dominate; explicit passives sound stiff.
- Literature: all forms appear, often with estar
- participle for atmospheric descriptions.
(journalism) O acordo foi assinado esta manhã em Bruxelas.
The agreement was signed this morning in Brussels.
(conversation) Assinaram o acordo esta manhã em Bruxelas.
They signed the agreement this morning in Brussels.
Same information, wildly different register. A native speaker would judge the first as formal (appropriate for a newspaper) and the second as natural (appropriate for chatting with a friend).
Common Mistakes
Error 1: using por with the se-passive.
❌ Vendeu-se a casa pela agência.
Incorrect — se-passive cannot take an agent.
✅ A casa foi vendida pela agência.
The house was sold by the agency.
Error 2: making the verb agree in the impersonal se.
❌ Precisam-se de empregados. (prescriptive)
Technically incorrect — impersonal 'se' requires 3rd singular.
✅ Precisa-se de empregados.
Employees needed.
Error 3: overusing the ser-passive in conversation.
❌ (informal) A carteira foi-me roubada no metro.
Awkward in casual speech — use an active 3rd-plural.
✅ Roubaram-me a carteira no metro.
My wallet got stolen on the metro.
Error 4: forgetting participle agreement.
❌ As propostas foi aprovado.
Incorrect — participle must agree in number and gender.
✅ As propostas foram aprovadas.
The proposals were approved.
Error 5: using estar where ser is needed, or vice versa.
❌ A porta era aberta quando eu cheguei. (if describing a state)
Incorrect — if describing the resulting state, use 'estava'.
✅ A porta estava aberta quando eu cheguei.
The door was open when I arrived. (state)
✅ A porta foi aberta às dez. (action: someone opened it at ten)
The door was opened at ten. (action)
Key Takeaways
- Portuguese has three passive systems: ser-passive (with agent), se-passive (patient-focused, no agent), and impersonal se (no subject at all).
- The se-passive agrees with the patient; the impersonal se stays singular.
- Only the ser-passive accepts a por agent.
- Portuguese speakers prefer alternatives — 3rd-plural indefinite and a gente — in conversation, reserving full passives for writing.
- Ser + participle marks action; estar + participle marks resulting state. This distinction is mandatory.
- Compound tenses passivise through ter sido / foi sendo / está a ser
- participle, with participle agreement controlled by the grammatical subject.
The Portuguese passive is where grammatical precision and stylistic awareness meet. Get the mechanics right, then learn the convention: which passive for which register, which alternative when the passive would sound stilted. Master both sides and your Portuguese will glide between formal and casual without a seam.
Related Topics
- Passive Voice and Impersonal Constructions (Overview)B1 — Portuguese expresses passive and agentless meaning through four related constructions — ser + past participle, se + verb (passive), impersonal se, and ficar + participle. This page maps out when to use each.
- Ser + Past Participle (Analytic Passive)B1 — The Portuguese analytic passive — ser + past participle + (por + agent). The most explicit passive construction, with mandatory participle agreement and the por contractions (pelo, pela, pelos, pelas).
- Se-Passive (Passiva Pronominal)B1 — Vendem-se livros — the passive with clitic se, where the verb agrees with the logical patient. Covers the classic prescriptive rule, the colloquial tension (vende-se casas vs vendem-se casas), and why the agent cannot be expressed.
- Impersonal SeB1 — How European Portuguese uses 'se' to make generic, subjectless statements — the equivalent of English 'one does X' or 'you do X' in the impersonal sense.
- Expressing the Agent with PorB2 — How European Portuguese marks the doer in a passive sentence — the preposition 'por', its obligatory contractions, and when to leave the agent out altogether.
- Voice and Valency AlternationsC1 — The full system of voice and valency in European Portuguese — active, passive with ser, passive with se, true reflexive, inherent pronominal, reciprocal, anticausative, and causative — and how the same verb can live in several of these slots.