The Spanish pasiva con ser is the construction that maps most directly onto the English be-passive: a form of ser plus a past participle, with the doer optionally introduced by por. El Quijote fue escrito por Cervantes — the Quixote was written by Cervantes. The grammar is straightforward; the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number, and ser can sit in any tense. What is less obvious to learners coming from English is how stylistically loaded the construction is in Spanish: it belongs to formal writing, journalism, history, and academic prose. In everyday peninsular conversation it is rare. Using it casually makes Spanish sound translated.
This page covers the form (verb agreement, tense flexibility, participle agreement, the por phrase), the verbs it works with and the verbs it doesn't, and the register in which it actually lives.
The formula
patient (subject) + ser (any tense) + past participle (agreeing with subject) + (por + agent)
El libro fue escrito por Cervantes.
The book was written by Cervantes.
La carta fue firmada por la directora.
The letter was signed by the director.
Los puentes fueron construidos en 1850.
The bridges were built in 1850.
Las leyes serán aprobadas mañana.
The laws will be passed tomorrow.
Three things to notice:
- Ser is conjugated for the subject and the tense. Fue, fueron, será, serán, es, son, ha sido, había sido — whatever the moment demands.
- The participle agrees with the subject in gender and number — exactly as if it were an adjective. Escrito / escrita / escritos / escritas. Firmado / firmada / firmados / firmadas.
- The agent (the doer) is optional, introduced by por. You can leave it out: el libro fue escrito en el siglo XVII (the book was written in the seventeenth century).
Participle agreement: the easy bit
This is the place where the Spanish passive is genuinely cleaner than the English one. The past participle agrees with the subject the same way any adjective does.
| Subject | Example |
|---|---|
| masculine singular | El acuerdo fue firmado. |
| feminine singular | La carta fue firmada. |
| masculine plural | Los acuerdos fueron firmados. |
| feminine plural | Las cartas fueron firmadas. |
Note that this is the opposite of how the participle behaves with haber in compound tenses. He firmado la carta (I've signed the letter) — the participle never agrees with haber. With ser, the participle always agrees with the subject. The two constructions look similar on paper; they are grammatically different.
Estas decisiones fueron tomadas por el comité.
These decisions were taken by the committee.
La novela fue traducida a doce idiomas.
The novel was translated into twelve languages.
Ser in every tense
Because ser can be conjugated in any tense, the ser-passive expresses the passive of any tense. This is more flexible than the English equivalent in some cases, and a useful expressive tool.
| Tense of ser | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| presente | El edificio es construido por una empresa local. | The building is built by a local company. (rare in this tense, used for habitual or general truths) |
| pretérito | El edificio fue construido en 1920. | The building was built in 1920. |
| imperfecto | En aquella época, los edificios eran construidos a mano. | In that era, buildings were built by hand. |
| futuro | El edificio será construido el año que viene. | The building will be built next year. |
| condicional | El edificio sería construido si hubiera dinero. | The building would be built if there were money. |
| presente perfecto | El edificio ha sido construido recientemente. | The building has been built recently. |
| pluscuamperfecto | El edificio había sido construido antes de la guerra. | The building had been built before the war. |
| subjuntivo presente | Es importante que el edificio sea construido pronto. | It's important that the building be built soon. |
Note that the present-tense passive (es construido) is the most marked of all. Modern peninsular Spanish almost never uses ser-passive in the present indicative for one-off actions — that environment belongs to the se-passive (se construye el edificio) or active alternatives. The present-tense passive survives mostly for general truths and habitual statements in formal writing.
The agent phrase: por + agent
When you do want to name the doer, you introduce it with por. The agent is the actor, the thing or person responsible for the action.
El cuadro fue pintado por Velázquez.
The painting was painted by Velázquez.
La ley ha sido aprobada por el parlamento.
The law has been passed by parliament.
Los daños fueron causados por la tormenta.
The damage was caused by the storm.
The por-phrase is optional, and in practice it is what justifies using the ser-passive at all in modern Spanish. If you're going to name the agent prominently, the ser-passive does the job. If you're not, the se-passive does it better (and the se-passive cannot take a por agent — that's the dividing line).
✅ El libro fue escrito por Cervantes.
The book was written by Cervantes. (ser-passive — agent named, formal.)
✅ Se escribió el libro en el siglo XVII.
The book was written in the seventeenth century. (se-passive — no agent, no por possible.)
❌ Se escribió el libro por Cervantes.
Incorrect — the se-passive does not allow por + agent.
For agents that are instruments or means (rather than active doers), Spanish sometimes uses por still, sometimes con:
La carta fue escrita a mano.
The letter was written by hand.
El edificio fue iluminado con velas.
The building was lit with candles.
Which verbs allow the ser-passive?
Not every verb takes the ser-passive comfortably. The construction strongly prefers action verbs (telic, eventive) that describe a clear, bounded action with a clear patient: escribir, construir, firmar, comprar, vender, descubrir, aprobar, traducir, encontrar, publicar, destruir, asesinar, elegir. These verbs all work fine.
The ser-passive does not work with:
- Stative verbs — tener, saber, parecer, ser, estar. You cannot say el coche es tenido por mí for I have a car. Spanish keeps these active: tengo un coche.
- Verbs that take an indirect object as their core argument — gustar, encantar, doler, importar, parecer. These already work very differently from English and have no passive form.
- Many psychological / mental verbs — creer, pensar, querer, odiar, amar sound forced in the passive. The exception is when you really need to passivize for emphasis in formal writing (era amada por todos, "she was loved by all," works but is literary).
- Verbs of perception and cognition — Spanish prefers active alternatives. Vimos la película rather than la película fue vista por nosotros.
- Present-tense passives of one-off, perfective actions. El libro es escrito por X sounds wrong if you mean a specific event. Use the preterite (fue escrito) or the present perfect (ha sido escrito).
❌ El coche es tenido por mi padre.
Incorrect — tener does not passivize.
✅ Mi padre tiene el coche.
My father has the car.
❌ El español es sabido por María.
Incorrect — saber does not passivize this way.
✅ María sabe español.
María knows Spanish.
❌ La película fue gustada por todos.
Incorrect — gustar has no passive form.
✅ A todos les gustó la película.
Everyone liked the film.
Register: where the ser-passive actually lives
The ser-passive lives in:
- News reports: El presidente fue detenido esta mañana.
- History and biography: La ciudad fue fundada en el siglo XIII.
- Academic writing: Los datos fueron analizados con SPSS.
- Legal and bureaucratic prose: La solicitud fue rechazada por la comisión.
- Literary narrative: Era amada por todos los que la conocían.
In casual conversation, it is rare. A native peninsular speaker telling a friend that their wallet was stolen will say me robaron la cartera, never mi cartera fue robada. A friend asking if the meeting was cancelled will hear han cancelado la reunión or se canceló la reunión, not la reunión fue cancelada.
Distinguishing passive ser from estar + participle
This is one of the most-confused pairs in Spanish. Ser + participio (the passive) describes an event — an action happening to the subject. Estar + participio describes a state — the result of an action, viewed as a current condition.
| Sentence | Voice | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| La puerta fue cerrada por el portero. | ser-passive (event) | The door was closed by the doorman. (The action of closing happened.) |
| La puerta está cerrada. | estar + participio (state) | The door is closed. (Its current state is closed; we don't care who closed it.) |
| El libro fue publicado en 2020. | ser-passive (event) | The book was published in 2020. (The publication happened that year.) |
| El libro está publicado. | estar + participio (state) | The book is published / is out. (It exists in published form right now.) |
A useful test: if you can paraphrase with English "now is in the state of being -ed," it's estar. If you can paraphrase with "got -ed at some point," it's ser.
For full coverage of the resultative estar + participio, see Past participle as adjective.
A note on participle irregularity
The participle in the ser-passive is the standard past participle and follows the regular and irregular patterns. The most common irregulars to watch for in passive contexts:
| Verb | Participle | Example |
|---|---|---|
| escribir | escrito | El libro fue escrito. |
| hacer | hecho | El trabajo fue hecho. |
| decir | dicho | Eso ya fue dicho. |
| ver | visto | La película fue vista por millones. |
| poner | puesto | El cartel fue puesto ayer. |
| abrir | abierto | El museo fue abierto en 1900. |
| cubrir | cubierto | El suelo fue cubierto de flores. |
| romper | roto | El cristal fue roto por la piedra. |
| devolver | devuelto | El dinero fue devuelto al cliente. |
| resolver | resuelto | El problema fue resuelto. |
All of these agree in gender and number with the subject: la carta fue escrita, las cartas fueron escritas, los problemas fueron resueltos.
Comparison with English
English uses the be-passive casually, everywhere, for everything: the door was opened, the cake was eaten, mistakes were made, I was told. Spanish uses ser-passive as a marked, formal-leaning option. The same English passive can have several Spanish translations depending on register:
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| The contract was signed yesterday. | Se firmó el contrato ayer. (neutral) / Firmaron el contrato ayer. (active) / El contrato fue firmado ayer. (formal) |
| The book was written by Cervantes. | El libro fue escrito por Cervantes. (correct — agent matters) |
| The meeting has been postponed. | Han aplazado la reunión. (neutral) / La reunión ha sido aplazada. (formal) |
| I was told that... | Me dijeron que... (active; the Spanish passive of decir with no agent is almost never used.) |
| Mistakes were made. | Se cometieron errores. (the canonical political dodge in Spanish, just as in English.) |
The dividing line: ser-passive when the agent matters and the register is formal; everything else, prefer active or se-passive.
Common Mistakes
❌ El libro fue escrito por Cervantes en 1605.
Marginal in conversation — fine in writing; in spoken Spanish a native is more likely to say 'Cervantes escribió el libro en 1605'.
✅ El libro fue escrito por Cervantes en 1605. / Cervantes escribió el libro en 1605.
The book was written by Cervantes in 1605. (Both correct; the second is more conversational.)
❌ La carta fue escrito ayer.
Incorrect — the participle must agree with the subject. La carta is feminine, so the participle is 'escrita'.
✅ La carta fue escrita ayer.
The letter was written yesterday.
❌ Los problemas fue resueltos.
Incorrect — ser must agree in number with the subject. Los problemas → fueron, not fue.
✅ Los problemas fueron resueltos.
The problems were solved.
❌ El coche es tenido por mi padre.
Incorrect — stative verbs like tener do not passivize.
✅ Mi padre tiene el coche.
My father has the car.
❌ La puerta fue cerrada toda la tarde.
Incorrect — for a state lasting through time, use estar + participio, not ser-passive.
✅ La puerta estuvo cerrada toda la tarde.
The door was closed all afternoon.
❌ Se escribió el libro por Cervantes.
Incorrect — the se-passive cannot take a por + agent phrase. Switch to the ser-passive for that.
✅ El libro fue escrito por Cervantes.
The book was written by Cervantes.
Key takeaways
- Ser + past participle + (por + agent), with the participle agreeing in gender and number with the subject.
- Ser can be conjugated in any tense; the present-tense ser-passive is the most marked and rarest.
- The construction is formal and written: news, history, academic, legal, literary. Avoid it in casual speech.
- Stative and indirect-object verbs (tener, saber, gustar) do not passivize.
- Ser + participio is an event; estar + participio is a state. Don't confuse them.
- If you don't need to name the agent, the se-passive or an active third-person plural will usually sound more natural than the ser-passive.
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