Breakdown of El antivirus de mi teléfono está desactivado.
de
from / of
el teléfono
the phone
estar
to be (location/state)
mi
my
el antivirus
antivirus
desactivar
to deactivate
Questions & Answers about El antivirus de mi teléfono está desactivado.
Why do we use está here instead of es if this is a passive sentence?
This sentence uses the "state passive" (pasiva de resultado), which focuses on the result of an action rather than the action itself. If you used es, like in es desactivado (the true passive voice), it would mean the antivirus is actively being deactivated by someone right now. Using está desactivado describes the current condition: it was deactivated at some point, and now it remains in that "off" state.
Does the past participle desactivado agree with antivirus or with teléfono?
It agrees with antivirus, which is the actual subject of the sentence. Even though teléfono is right next to the verb, the phrase de mi teléfono just acts as a descriptor telling us which antivirus it is. Because el antivirus is masculine and singular, desactivado takes the masculine singular -o ending.
How do we know antivirus is singular here if it ends in an "s"?
Like many compound nouns in Spanish (such as el cumpleaños or el paraguas), antivirus has the same form for both singular and plural. You have to look at the surrounding words to figure out the number. Here, the singular article el and the singular verb está tell you it is just one antivirus. If it were plural, the sentence would start with los antivirus están.
Could I say se desactivó instead of está desactivado?
You could, but it changes the meaning slightly. Está desactivado focuses purely on the current state (it is currently off). If you use the passive "se" and say se desactivó, you are focusing on the event or action of it turning off in the past (it got deactivated / it deactivated itself).
Learn El antivirus de mi teléfono está desactivado and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free