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Fuimos ayudados por el albañil, de quien aprendimos mucho.

Fuimos ayudados por el albañil, de quien aprendimos mucho.
We were helped by the mason, from whom we learned a lot.
From Lesson 362:Analytical passive voice (ser + participio)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Fuimos ayudados por el albañil, de quien aprendimos mucho.

Why does the past participle ayudados end in -os instead of the standard -o?
In the analytical passive voice (ser + past participle), the participle acts like an adjective describing the subject. Because the subject is an implied nosotros (we), ayudados must be plural and masculine (or mixed gender) to match it.
How do we know this passive sentence is in the simple past tense?
In passive constructions, the verb ser carries the tense. Here, fuimos is the preterite (simple past) of ser, showing that the action was a completed event. The past participle (ayudados) only changes for gender and number, never for tense.
Would native speakers use this exact passive phrasing in a casual conversation?
Probably not. While the analytical passive voice is grammatically correct and common in writing or news, it sounds quite formal. In everyday spoken Spanish, people heavily prefer the active voice, so they would naturally say El albañil nos ayudó (The mason helped us).
Why do we use de quien instead of de que for "from whom"?
When referring to a person after a preposition like de, a, or con, Spanish requires using quien (or quienes for plural), or an article plus que (like del que). Using just de que to refer to a specific person is incorrect.

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