Learn Spanish (Latin America): El médico revisa el estado del paciente. - The doctor checks the patient's condition.

El médico revisa el estado del paciente.

The doctor checks the patient's condition.

Breakdown of El médico revisa el estado del paciente.

the doctor (physician)

el estado

the state (condition)

Questions & Answers about El médico revisa el estado del paciente.

This sentence is active. How would we change it to the passive voice to say the condition "is checked" by the doctor?

To focus on the action taking place, you use ser plus the past participle: El estado del paciente es revisado por el médico. Notice that revisado matches the masculine, singular noun el estado.

And how would we say the condition "is checked" as a resulting state, rather than an action?

To show that the checking is already done and we are describing the current situation, use estar plus the past participle: El estado del paciente está revisado. This contrasts with es revisado, which describes the event of checking itself.

The word estado looks like a past participle. Is it acting as a verb here?

It is exactly the same word as the past participle of estar, but here it acts as a noun meaning the "state" or "condition." Since estar usually deals with temporary states or conditions, el estado translates perfectly to "the condition" in a medical context.

If the patient were female, would the word change to pacienta?