El bosque está protegido.

to be

Breakdown of El bosque está protegido.

• el bosque: the forest
• protegido: protected

Questions & Answers about El bosque está protegido.

Why use está instead of es in El bosque está protegido?

We use está, the present indicative of estar, to express a state or condition (the forest is in the condition of being protected). If you said El bosque es protegido, you’d be using a true passive with ser, focusing on the action (“the forest is protected by someone”), whereas estar + participle highlights the resulting state.

Why is there an accent mark on está?

Because está (3rd-person singular of estar) needs an accent to distinguish it from esta (the feminine demonstrative adjective meaning this). Without the accent, the reader might think you mean this forest instead of the forest is.

Is protegido a verb form or an adjective here?

It’s the past participle of proteger, but in this sentence it functions as an adjective describing the forest’s state. Spanish often uses past participles as adjectives with estar to indicate how something is after an action.

How would I mention who did the protecting (the agent)?