Valency is a verb's vocabulary — the number and type of arguments it takes. A transitive verb like partir ("to break") wants a subject and an object: o miúdo partiu a janela ("the boy broke the window"). An intransitive verb like chegar wants only a subject: o comboio chegou ("the train arrived"). Voice is how the same verb's arguments can be reshuffled without changing the underlying event: the boy can be the subject of an active sentence, or the window can be the subject of a passive one, or nobody can be the subject — a janela partiu-se, "the window broke" (somehow, on its own). European Portuguese has one of the richest valency-alternation systems in the Romance family, and understanding it is the difference between sounding like a C1 speaker and sounding like you learned the language from a textbook.
This page lays out the full inventory: five voices (active, passive with ser, passive with se, anticausative, causative) plus four pronominal types (true reflexive, inherent, reciprocal, anticausative) that are often bundled together as "reflexive" in beginner grammars but that behave completely differently. By the end of the page, you should be able to look at any construction of the form X-se + verb and tell immediately which of the four types you are looking at — a skill that pays off every time you read literature, legal writing, or a thoughtful newspaper article.
The active voice — baseline
The active voice is the default: subject does, object receives. Nothing special marks it.
O jardineiro regou as plantas.
The gardener watered the plants.
A diretora assinou o contrato na sexta-feira.
The director signed the contract on Friday.
Subject = agent. Object = patient. This is the scaffolding on top of which every other voice is built.
Passive with ser + past participle — the canonical passive
European Portuguese forms the canonical passive with ser + past participle, where the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number. The original object becomes the subject; the original subject, if mentioned, appears in a prepositional phrase with por (or occasionally de). See the dedicated pages on ser passive and the agent with por for full treatment.
As plantas foram regadas pelo jardineiro.
The plants were watered by the gardener.
O contrato foi assinado pela diretora.
The contract was signed by the director.
Os livros foram escritos por uma autora portuguesa.
The books were written by a Portuguese author.
Note: the participle regadas agrees with as plantas (feminine plural); assinado agrees with o contrato (masculine singular); escritos agrees with os livros (masculine plural). The agreement is non-negotiable.
When to use the ser-passive
The ser-passive is stylistically formal, common in writing (legal, journalistic, academic) but relatively rare in casual speech. Portuguese speakers often prefer the active with an indefinite subject or a passive se (see below). Compare:
O prémio foi atribuído ao arquitecto pela câmara municipal.
The prize was awarded to the architect by the city council. (formal)
A câmara atribuiu o prémio ao arquitecto.
The city council awarded the prize to the architect. (active, everyday)
Ficar-passive — resultative passive
Portuguese has a resultative passive formed with ficar + past participle, which focuses on the resulting state rather than the action. See ficar-passive for details.
A porta ficou fechada toda a noite.
The door remained/was closed all night. (resulting state)
Fiquei impressionado com o espectáculo.
I was impressed with the show. (resulting state, but English says 'was')
Compare: foi fechada (someone closed it — the action), estava fechada (it was in a closed state — simple description), ficou fechada (it ended up in a closed state — transition into the state). Three different shades of English "was closed."
Passive with se — the hallmark of European Portuguese prose
This is the construction Portuguese speakers reach for when they want an impersonal, agentless statement — and it is everywhere: shop signs, news headlines, recipes, official notices, and any prose that does not want to commit to a specific agent. See the detailed se-passive page for the full mechanics.
Vende-se carro.
Car for sale. (lit. 'car sells itself')
Alugam-se quartos a estudantes.
Rooms for rent to students.
Fala-se português neste restaurante.
Portuguese is spoken in this restaurant.
Agreement in the passive-se
The verb agrees with the patient, which functions as the subject:
| Singular patient | Plural patient |
|---|---|
| Vende-se carro. | Vendem-se carros. |
| Aluga-se casa. | Alugam-se casas. |
| Fala-se português. | Falam-se várias línguas aqui. |
| Publicou-se um livro. | Publicaram-se vários livros. |
Na reunião discutiram-se os resultados do trimestre.
At the meeting, the quarterly results were discussed.
Vendem-se bilhetes à entrada do teatro.
Tickets are sold at the theatre entrance.
European Portuguese vs Brazilian: where the dialects diverge
European Portuguese retains the passive-se as a fully productive construction. Brazilian Portuguese, especially in speech, increasingly treats se as an indefinite subject marker and keeps the verb singular regardless of patient number. The difference matters when you read:
| European Portuguese | Brazilian Portuguese (colloquial) |
|---|---|
| Vendem-se casas. | Vende-se casas. (or Vende casas.) |
| Discutiram-se os resultados. | Discutiu-se os resultados. |
| Alugam-se quartos. | Aluga-se quartos. |
For a European Portuguese learner, the agreement rule is strict: plural patient → plural verb. Vende-se casas (without agreement) is considered non-standard in Portugal.
Impersonal se — a different creature
Separate from the passive-se, Portuguese has an impersonal-se used with intransitive verbs. The verb stays in the third-person singular and there is no patient — se is essentially filling the subject slot. See impersonal-se.
Aqui vive-se bem.
One lives well here. / People live well here.
Em Portugal come-se muito peixe.
In Portugal, people eat a lot of fish.
The distinction: passive-se requires a patient that can be reanalysed as the subject (casas, quartos, bilhetes). Impersonal-se does not — the verb has no direct object, so se is just marking indefinite agency.
True reflexive — the subject acts on itself
Now we turn to the pronominal verbs. The first type is the true reflexive: the subject performs an action whose endpoint is the subject itself. In this case, the se could, in principle, be replaced with a si mesmo or a si próprio ("to him/herself") without losing the meaning.
Ela vestiu-se rapidamente.
She got dressed quickly. (She dressed herself.)
O miúdo cortou-se a fazer a barba.
The kid cut himself shaving.
Diagnostic test: can you insert a si mesmo/próprio? If yes, it is a true reflexive.
Ele corta-se.
He cuts himself.
Ele corta-se a si mesmo.
He cuts himself (emphatic: he himself is the one being cut).
Inherent pronominal — the verb just comes that way
Some Portuguese verbs are inherently pronominal: they exist only with se, and the se is not meaningful in any reflexive sense. You cannot remove it, and you cannot substitute a si mesmo. The pronoun is part of the verb's lexical identity. See inherently reflexive verbs for the full list.
| Inherent pronominal | Meaning |
|---|---|
| queixar-se | to complain |
| arrepender-se | to regret |
| atrever-se | to dare |
| rir-se | to laugh |
| esquecer-se (de) | to forget |
| lembrar-se (de) | to remember |
| aperceber-se (de) | to realise |
| tornar-se | to become |
| suicidar-se | to commit suicide |
Eles queixaram-se do barulho até às três da manhã.
They complained about the noise until three in the morning.
Arrependeu-se imediatamente de ter respondido assim.
He immediately regretted having responded like that.
Ela esqueceu-se das chaves em casa.
She forgot her keys at home.
These verbs do not describe a subject acting on itself — queixar-se does not mean "to complain oneself." The se is lexically fixed.
Lembrar vs lembrar-se — a critical pair
Portuguese famously distinguishes lembrar (to remind, transitive, non-pronominal) from lembrar-se (to remember, pronominal with de). Getting these mixed up is one of the most common advanced-learner errors.
Lembra-me de comprar pão.
Remind me to buy bread. (lembrar = to remind someone of something)
Lembro-me do que ele disse.
I remember what he said. (lembrar-se = to remember)
Esqueci-me de lhe dizer que a reunião foi adiada.
I forgot to tell him that the meeting was postponed.
Reciprocal — each to the other
A reciprocal uses se (or nos / vos) to mean "each other." The subject is plural, and two participants act on each other. See reciprocal verbs.
Os dois irmãos abraçaram-se depois de tantos anos.
The two brothers hugged each other after so many years.
Escrevemo-nos quase todas as semanas.
We write to each other almost every week.
Eles conheceram-se numa festa.
They met each other at a party.
Disambiguating reflexive from reciprocal
With a plural subject, se is ambiguous between reflexive and reciprocal. Portuguese disambiguates with um ao outro, uns aos outros, or mutuamente.
Os miúdos cumprimentaram-se.
The kids greeted each other / themselves. (ambiguous)
Os miúdos cumprimentaram-se uns aos outros.
The kids greeted each other. (unambiguously reciprocal)
Os miúdos cumprimentaram-se a si próprios.
The kids greeted themselves. (unambiguously reflexive)
Ajudam-se mutuamente.
They help each other.
Anticausative — the event happens without an agent
This is the trickiest of the pronominal types for English speakers, because English rarely marks it. The anticausative takes a transitive verb and reshuffles it so the patient becomes the subject, and no agent is implied or mentioned. Portuguese marks this with se.
A porta abriu-se de repente com o vento.
The door opened suddenly with the wind.
O copo partiu-se quando caiu da mesa.
The glass broke when it fell off the table.
As luzes apagaram-se sozinhas.
The lights went out by themselves.
A pizza queimou-se no forno.
The pizza burned in the oven.
The distinguishing feature of the anticausative: there is no agent, not even an implicit one. Nobody broke the glass; it broke. The door is not being opened by a hidden actor; it just opened.
Compare with the passive-se:
| Sentence | Type | Agent? |
|---|---|---|
| Vendem-se livros. | passive-se | Yes, implicit (someone sells them) |
| A porta abriu-se. | anticausative | No (it opened on its own) |
| As luzes apagaram-se sozinhas. | anticausative | No (reinforced by sozinhas) |
| As luzes apagaram-se à meia-noite. | ambiguous | Could be either |
The test: can you add por + agent? If yes (vendem-se livros pelo dono da loja), it is a passive-se. If no (#a porta abriu-se pelo vento sounds wrong — you have to say abriu-se com o vento or o vento abriu a porta), it is anticausative.
Verbs that participate in the anticausative alternation
Not every transitive verb can go anticausative. The ones that do tend to denote changes of state whose cause can be spontaneous or natural.
| Transitive | Anticausative |
|---|---|
| abrir (to open) | abrir-se (to open on its own) |
| fechar (to close) | fechar-se |
| partir (to break) | partir-se |
| quebrar (to break) | quebrar-se |
| queimar (to burn) | queimar-se |
| derramar (to spill) | derramar-se |
| molhar (to wet) | molhar-se |
| sujar (to dirty) | sujar-se |
| apagar (to turn off) | apagar-se |
| acender (to turn on) | acender-se |
Verbs that do NOT anticausativise: matar (to kill), escrever (to write), construir (to build), assinar (to sign). These always require a responsible agent — a glass can break itself, but a book does not write itself, nor does a contract sign itself.
O vidro partiu-se quando a porta bateu com força.
The glass shattered when the door slammed shut.
O café derramou-se por todo o balcão.
The coffee spilled all over the counter.
Causative — making someone do something
At the other end of the valency spectrum is the causative: adding an extra argument so that the subject causes another participant to perform the action. Portuguese uses fazer + infinitive or mandar + infinitive (with a stronger sense of ordering).
O professor fez os alunos repetir a frase.
The teacher made the students repeat the sentence.
A mãe mandou o filho arrumar o quarto.
The mother made/ordered her son to tidy up his room.
O chefe fez-nos trabalhar até às dez da noite.
The boss made us work until ten at night.
Permissive — deixar + infinitive
A related construction is deixar + infinitive ("to let, to allow"):
Os pais deixaram os filhos ir à festa.
The parents let their kids go to the party.
Deixa-me ver isso.
Let me see that.
Não me deixam usar o carro ao fim de semana.
They don't let me use the car on weekends.
Fazer com que + subjunctive
Fazer also has a subjunctive variant used for abstract or indirect causation:
O acidente fez com que todos ficassem atentos.
The accident caused everyone to become more alert.
A chuva fez com que adiássemos o piquenique.
The rain made us postpone the picnic.
Comparison with Spanish
Spanish and Portuguese share much of this system, but there are important divergences.
- Passive-se agreement is more rigorously maintained in European Portuguese than in much of Latin American Spanish. Portuguese: vendem-se casas (plural). Colloquial Latin American Spanish often says se vende casas without agreement, though textbooks still require se venden casas. European Portuguese style guides have no tolerance for the non-agreeing variant.
- Clitic placement is very different. Portuguese uses enclisis (vende-se, abriu-se) as the default; Spanish uses proclisis (se vende, se abrió). Portuguese switches to proclisis only when triggered (negation, certain adverbs, embedded clauses).
- Inherent pronominals partly overlap but partly diverge. Lembrar-se de ↔ acordarse de. Queixar-se de ↔ quejarse de. But Portuguese gostar de maps to Spanish gustar with indirect objects (me gusta), so the mapping is not one-to-one. Learn each Portuguese pronominal verb as its own lexical item rather than assuming a Spanish parallel.
- The anticausative system is broadly parallel, though Portuguese is slightly more productive with it.
Comparison with English
English marks voice distinctions more poorly than Portuguese does. The key mismatches:
| Portuguese | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| A porta abriu-se. | The door opened. | English uses same form for transitive/anticausative: 'he opened the door' vs 'the door opened' |
| O copo partiu-se. | The glass broke. | Same intransitive-looking form in English |
| Vende-se a casa. | The house is for sale. | English prefers 'for sale' over 'is sold' here |
| Discutiram-se os resultados. | The results were discussed. | English defaults to the canonical passive |
| Eles conheceram-se na festa. | They met at the party. | English 'meet' inherently reciprocal; no marker needed |
| Fez-nos trabalhar. | He made us work. | Parallel causative |
English bundles what Portuguese splits. When you write English→Portuguese, you have to pause and ask: is there an agent? Is the event reciprocal? Is this a resulting state or the action itself? Your English sentence does not mark those distinctions, but your Portuguese one must.
Common mistakes
Mistake 1: Losing agreement in the passive-se.
❌ Vende-se casas novas no centro da cidade.
Wrong: plural patient casas requires plural verb in European Portuguese.
✅ Vendem-se casas novas no centro da cidade.
Correct: the verb agrees with the plural patient.
This is the single most common written error Portuguese teachers see. The rule: if you can paraphrase with foram vendidas or são vendidas, the verb must be plural.
Mistake 2: Dropping the se from inherent pronominals.
❌ Queixei muito sobre o serviço no restaurante.
Wrong: queixar is inherently pronominal; the se is not optional.
✅ Queixei-me muito do serviço no restaurante.
Correct: queixar-se de + complement.
English speakers instinctively drop pronominal clitics because English does not have them. Queixar-se, arrepender-se, lembrar-se, and the whole inherent-pronominal family must keep their clitic.
Mistake 3: Confusing lembrar with lembrar-se.
❌ Eu lembro o teu aniversário.
Wrong: this means 'I remind your birthday' — lembrar is transitive 'to remind'.
✅ Eu lembro-me do teu aniversário.
Correct: lembrar-se de = to remember.
✅ Lembra-me de te felicitar no teu aniversário.
Correct: lembrar (non-pronominal) = to remind.
The mnemonic: if you are the one doing the cognitive work (remembering), the verb is pronominal. If you are nudging someone else into remembering, it is non-pronominal.
Mistake 4: Using anticausative where a passive is needed.
❌ O contrato assinou-se ontem.
Wrong: contracts do not sign themselves; this would be anticausative, which is not possible for assinar.
✅ O contrato foi assinado ontem.
Correct: ser-passive, because there is an implicit agent.
✅ Assinou-se o contrato ontem.
Also correct: passive-se, agent implicit.
The test: can the event happen without any agent at all (like a door opening in the wind)? If no, you need a passive, not an anticausative.
Mistake 5: Over-using the ser-passive in speech.
❌ A porta foi aberta pelo vento.
Grammatically possible but stilted — sounds translated-from-English.
✅ O vento abriu a porta. / A porta abriu-se com o vento.
More natural: active or anticausative.
In speech, the ser-passive carries a bureaucratic whiff. Reserve it for writing where it is genuinely useful, and prefer active or passive-se in conversation.
Key takeaways
- Active → passive with ser: formal, participle agrees, agent with por.
- Passive with se: everyday Portuguese, verb agrees with patient (in European Portuguese).
- Impersonal se: intransitive, verb stays singular, no patient.
- True reflexive: subject acts on itself, se replaceable by a si mesmo.
- Inherent pronominal: se is lexical, not reflexive (queixar-se, arrepender-se).
- Reciprocal: "each other," disambiguate with um ao outro or mutuamente.
- Anticausative: event happens without an agent (a porta abriu-se).
- Causative: fazer/mandar + infinitive; permissive deixar + infinitive.
Master the diagnostics — "can the verb have no agent?" for anticausative vs passive-se, "can I insert a si mesmo?" for true reflexive vs inherent — and the whole system collapses into something manageable.
Related Topics
- 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.
- 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.
- Ficar + Past Participle: The Resultative PassiveB2 — How 'ficar + past participle' expresses a resulting state after a change — the distinct third voice alongside ser (event) and estar (state) that European Portuguese uses productively.
- Reflexive Verbs OverviewA2 — What reflexive verbs are in European Portuguese — the pronouns, the clitic placement rules, the five main categories (true reflexive, inherent, reciprocal, middle, and se-passive), and the key PT-PT vs PT-BR differences.
- Reciprocal Verbs — Each OtherB1 — How European Portuguese uses the reflexive pronoun with plural subjects to mean 'each other' — the pattern, the ambiguity with true reflexives, and the disambiguators um ao outro and mutuamente.
- Inherently Reflexive VerbsB1 — The Portuguese verbs that exist only in reflexive form — arrepender-se, queixar-se, orgulhar-se, esforçar-se, aperceber-se, and their cousins — where the pronoun is not a modifier but part of the verb itself.