Passive Voice In Spanish Made Simple

Learning Spanish? Eager to tackle advanced topics? Then stick around, because this article is all about passive voice in Spanish!

In this informative article, you'll learn about the difference between active and passive voice in Spanish and when to use which depending on what you want to communicate.

As you'll see the passive voice can be handy in cases where you don't need (or want!) to communicate who did an action.

You'll also see plenty of examples of the passive voice in Spanish so you can start getting to grips with it fast.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video below from the StoryLearning Spanish YouTube channel that will help you master the passive voice just like a native Spanish speaker:

What Is The Passive Voice In Spanish?

Before we dive into the passive voice, let’s talk about what the active voice, its direct opposite, is and how it works. We can tell a sentence is written in active voice because the subject is the one who performs the action the verb is describing.

This means the subject is the ‘agent' of said action. The structure you’ll probably see in active voice sentences is [SUBJECT + CONJUGATED VERB + OBJECT]. For example:

• Pedro compra el chocolate. (Pedro buys the chocolate bar.)
• Yo beso a Julia. (I kiss Julia.)
• Los críticos leyeron el manuscrito. (The critics read the manuscript.)

In these sentences, el chocolate, Julia, and el manuscrito are what we call direct objects. Why? Because the verb acts directly on them and because they receive the action.

Another reason we know they're direct objects is that we can swap these words with the pronouns lo, la, los, or las, depending on the objects’ gender and number: Yo los compro, Mariana la besa, Los críticos lo leyeron.

Spanish passive voice helps us say the same thing but by turning things around. How so? Well, by placing the focus on the direct object rather than the subject of the verb.

Just like in English, these passive sentences feature a ‘patient subject' (to use the technial term!), in other words, a subject that doesn’t perform the action. Instead, the action falls on it. Let’s see how the previous example phrases can be turned into the passive voice:

• El chocolate es comprado por Pedro. (The chocolate bar is bought by Pedro.)
• Julia es besada por mí. (Julia is kissed by me.)
• El manuscrito fue leído por los críticos. (The manuscript was read by the critics.)

In these cases, what used to be the direct object has become the sentence's subject. We can see this if we focus on the person and number agreement the new subjects have with the verbs.

In sentence number two, the active version featured a verb in the first person singular, whereas the passive version has one in the third person.

And what happened to the former subjects? Well, we can find them at the end of the new sentences, introduced by the word por (by). However, Pedro, mí and los niños aren't direct objects, but something called complemento agente (agent).

This complement can be a person, an animal or even an object, like in the phrase La casa fue destruída por un gran tronco (The house was destroyed by a large tree trunk). 

How To Form The Spanish Passive Voice

So how do you form passive sentences in Spanish? The structure you need is [SUBJECT + VERB SER CONJUGATED + ACTION VERB AS PARTICIPLE + AGENT].

There are three things you should keep in mind to use the Spanish passive voice with ser (to be) successfully:

1) The auxiliary verb ser is conjugated in the same tense as the action. For example, if you're talking about a past event, you should conjugate ser in any of the past tenses available, like the pretérito perfecto simple or the pretérito imperfecto.

Here’s a chart with the most common Spanish tenses:

For example:

• Hoy, yo soy empujado por mi hermano. (Today I am shoved by my brother.)
• Ayer, yo fui empujado por mi hermano. (Yesterday I was shoved by my brother.)
• Cuando era niño, yo era empujado por mi hermano.(When I was a child I was shoved by my brother.)
• Mañana, yo seré empujado por mi hermano. (Tomorrow I will be shoved by my brother.)

2) The participle (that is, the other part of the verb that’s not the auxiliary verb ser) carries the meaning, and is affected by gender and number agreement with the subject, like so:

• La pared es pintada por Genaro. (The wall is painted by Genaro.)
• Las paredes son pintadas por Genaro. (The walls are painted by Genaro.)
• El barco es pintado por Genaro. (The ship is painted by Genaro.)
• Los barcos son pintados por Genaro. (The ships are painted by Genaro.)

Spanish participles are really easy to create: all you need to do is to take off the -AR, -ER or -IR ending and add the suffix -ADO (for verbs like amar (to love)) or -IDO (for verbs like comer (to eat) and vivir (to live)). Don’t forget to make the participle agree in gender and number!

• Tomar → Tomado/ada/ados/adas
• Comer → Comido/ida/idos/idas
• Dormir → Dormido/ida/idos/idas

Watch out for the irregular participles! Here’s a chart with the most common ones:

3) In the passive voice, you can remove the agent entirely, like in El barco es pintado cada año (The ship is painted each year). You'll see this a lot in the press when an action is highlighted but not the person who did it. 

For example, if there's a headline that says La compañía despidió a 200 empleados de IT (The company fired 200 IT employees), this would put the company in a bad light. How can the journalist fix that?

First of all, by switching it into the passive voice, like this: 200 empleados de IT fueron despedidos por la compañía (200 IT employees were fired by the company). Second of all, they can omit the agent: 200 empleados de IT fueron despedidos (200 IT employees were fired).

The Spanish passive voice can also appear in other contexts like literature, formal complaints, or even travel guides and encyclopaedias. So look out for it as you apply the StoryLearning method and read in Spanish.

Passive Voice Spanish With Estar

You can also find the Spanish passive voice with the auxiliary estar, which is formed just like the one with ser. You use this type of passive voice when highlighting results from previous actions.

For example, in La ventana estaba abierta cuando llegue (The window was opened when I arrived), someone or something (e.g. the wind) must have opened the window in order for it to be like that. Some other examples are:

• La luz está encendida. (The light is on.)
• La cena está servida. (Dinner is served.)

There’s only one catch, though: in some cases, the participle is replaced by an adjective, like in La casa está limpia (The house is clean) instead of limpiada (cleaned).

Another key feature of this type of passive voice is that, unlike the passive with ser, it doesn’t usually mention the agent. So the person who performed the action doesn’t really matter: only the result does.

The agent can be mentioned if they continue to affect the action, like in La puerta está bloqueada por escombros (The door is blocked by debris).

Passive Voice Spanish With Se

Finally, there's one last type of passive voice that's formed with the reflexive pronoun se, like in the phrase: Se vende departamento (Apartment for sale).

The passive voice with se is used to further highlight the action, because who performs it isn't relevant. You won’t be able to find an exact English equivalent for this grammar structure. Thankfully, it’s really easy to learn: 

[PRONOUN SE + VERB CONJUGATED IN THE THIRD PERSON + THE RECIPIENT OF THE ACTION]. 

For example:

• Se publicó el resultado de las elecciones. (The result of the elections was released.)
• Se vendieron todas las entradas en una hora. (All the tickets were sold out in one hour.)

Mastering Passive Voice Spanish

So there you have it – an almost complete guide to the passive voice in Spanish grammar.

As with any aspect of Spanish grammar, the Spanish passive voice can take some getting used to. Don't expect to get the hang of it after reading just one article!

Instead, follow the rules of StoryLearning and read and listen to books and short stories in Spanish. As you read, you'll see the passive voice in Spanish over and over. You'll soon get used to its different forms and when to use them.

And if you need a bit of help to master Spanish passive voice or any other aspect of grammar, my course, Spanish Uncovered, can help. The course is powered by my unique StoryLearning method, where you learn Spanish through a story, not rules. Click here for a free 7-day trial.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.