Question 1

Why is the preterite tense (fueron) used here instead of the imperfect (eran) for the passive voice?

Accepted Answer

In the analytical passive voice, fueron is used because the designing was a completed action in the past. If the sentence used eran diseñados, it would imply an ongoing, repeated, or background action in the past, translating closer to "were being designed" or "used to be designed."

Question 2

Why does the word diseñados end in -os?

Accepted Answer

In the analytical passive voice, the past participle acts like an adjective and must match the subject in both gender and number. Since the subject Los vitrales is masculine and plural, the participle diseñado changes to diseñados.

Question 3

Could we use los que instead of quienes in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Yes, absolutely. After the preposition por, you can use quienes to mean "those who" or "the people who." You could perfectly swap it for los que without changing the meaning of the sentence. Both are standard ways to refer back to an unspecified group of people.

Question 4

Is this "ser + participle + por" structure common in everyday spoken Spanish?

Accepted Answer

It is perfectly understood but generally sounds a bit formal, literary, or journalistic. In casual everyday speech, speakers often prefer to just use the active voice, like "Quienes construyeron la catedral diseñaron los vitrales." However, when you really want to emphasize the object receiving the action and the agent who did it, this analytical passive structure is the right tool.

Los vitrales fueron diseñados por quienes construyeron la catedral.

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