Breakdown of El soldado fue visto por la policía.
ser
to be
ver
to see / to look / appear
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
la policía
the police
el soldado
the soldier
Questions & Answers about El soldado fue visto por la policía.
Why do we use fue instead of estuvo in this sentence?
This sentence uses the analytic passive voice. To express that an action was done to someone, we use ser (here in the preterite, fue) plus a past participle. If we used estuvo, it would describe a physical location or a temporary state, rather than the action of being seen.
La policía is feminine. Why does the sentence use visto instead of vista?
In the passive voice, the past participle acts like an adjective that must agree with the subject receiving the action, not the person doing it. The subject is el soldado, which is masculine singular, so the participle must be visto.
Why do we use por to mean 'by' here? Could we use para?
Is visto a regular past participle?
No, it comes from ver (to see) and is highly irregular. If it followed the normal past participle rules for '-er' verbs, it would be 'vido', but that word does not exist in standard Spanish. You just have to memorize visto.
Wait, isn't a male police officer el policía? Why does it say la policía here?
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