The Passive Voice and Impersonal Se

The passive voice is a Higher-tier structure in AQA GCSE Spanish (8692). Foundation students are not assessed on it, so if you are sitting Foundation you can skip this lesson.

In an active sentence, the subject does the action. In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action, and the doer becomes less important or disappears.

• Active: Los romanos fundaron la ciudad. — The Romans founded the city.
• Passive: La ciudad fue fundada por los romanos. — The city was founded by the Romans.

Notice how la ciudad, the thing that received the action, moves to the front. Spanish has two ways to express this idea: the true passive with ser, and the much more common passive se. This lesson covers both, plus the irregular participles you need.

The full passive is formed with ser (in any tense) plus a past participle. The participle behaves like an adjective, so it agrees in gender and number with the subject.

Regular past participles: -ar → -ado, -er/-ir → -ido.

Subject	ser + participle	Meaning
La casa (fem. sing.)	fue construida	The house was built
El puente (masc. sing.)	fue construido	The bridge was built
Las casas (fem. pl.)	fueron construidas	The houses were built
Los libros (masc. pl.)	fueron escritos	The books were written

• La casa fue construida en 1990. — The house was built in 1990.
• Las cartas fueron enviadas ayer. — The letters were sent yesterday.

The past participle after ser is not fixed. It changes ending to match the subject: construida, construido, construidas, construidos.

To say who or what performed the action, add por (by) plus the agent.

• Los libros fueron escritos por García Márquez. — The books were written by García Márquez.
• El cuadro fue pintado por Picasso. — The painting was painted by Picasso.
• América fue descubierta por los europeos en 1492. — America was discovered by Europeans in 1492.

You can leave por out when the doer is unknown or unimportant:

• El museo fue construido en 1850. — The museum was built in 1850. (we are not told by whom)

The tense of ser sets the time frame: es construido (is built), fue construido (was built), será construido (will be built), ha sido construido (has been built).

Some common verbs have irregular past participles. You must use these both in the perfect tense and in the passive.

Verb	Past participle	Verb	Past participle
escribir	escrito	hacer	hecho
ver	visto	abrir	abierto
romper	roto	decir	dicho
poner	puesto	volver	vuelto
morir	muerto	cubrir	cubierto

• La ventana fue rota por el viento. — The window was broken by the wind.
• El trabajo fue hecho por los estudiantes. — The work was done by the students.

Even when irregular, the participle still agrees: rota (fem. sing.), rotos (masc. pl.), hechas (fem. pl.).

Spanish usually avoids the full ser passive in everyday speech and uses the passive se instead. The pattern is se + a third-person verb, and the verb agrees with the thing, not with a person.

• Se habla español aquí. — Spanish is spoken here. (singular thing → singular verb)
• Se venden coches. — Cars are sold / Cars for sale. (plural thing → plural verb)
• Se hablan varios idiomas en España. — Several languages are spoken in Spain.
• Aquí se fabrican muchos productos. — Many products are made here.

The choice between se vende and se venden depends entirely on the noun:

Noun	Verb agreement	Example
coche (sing.)	se vende	Se vende un coche.
coches (pl.)	se venden	Se venden coches.

Closely related is the impersonal se, used to talk about what people in general do. Here the verb stays singular and there is no specific subject. English often uses "one", "you" or "people".

• Se puede fumar aquí. — One can smoke here / Smoking is allowed here.
• Se dice que la comida es excelente. — People say (that) the food is excellent.
• ¿Cómo se dice "homework" en español? — How do you say "homework" in Spanish?
• Desde aquí se ve el mar. — From here you can see the sea.

Think of se as a way of saying "you/one/people in general" without naming anyone. This is one of the most useful structures for sounding natural in the Speaking and Writing papers.

The same idea, expressed three ways:

Structure	Example	English
Active	Aquí venden coches.	They sell cars here.
Ser passive	Los coches son vendidos aquí.	The cars are sold here.
Passive se	Se venden coches aquí.	Cars are sold here.

1. Not making the participle agree

After ser, the participle matches the subject: La casa fue construida, not fue construido.

2. Leaving the se verb singular with a plural noun

Se vende coches is wrong. The verb agrees with the plural noun: Se venden coches.

3. Overusing the ser passive

The full ser passive sounds formal and is common in news and history. For most situations Spanish prefers the passive se: Se habla español, not El español es hablado.

4. Forgetting irregular participles

Escribir → escrito, hacer → hecho, ver → visto. Using escribido or hacido is an error in both the passive and the perfect tense.