Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Estar with a past participle

Estarwith a past participle indicates a stateor a condition, often the end

result or consequence of something that has taken place:

Cuando llegamos la puerta estaba abierta.

When we arrived the door was open.

Las entradas ya estaban vendidas.

The seats were already sold.

Ser with a past participle

Serwith a past participle focuses on an action, and refers to something

being done. It forms the true passive construction, comparable with English

‘is/was done (by)’. This construction should be used when the sentence

reports the agent or ‘doer’ by whom something is done:

Cuando llegamos la puerta fue abierta por una criada.

When we arrived the door was opened by a maid.

Las entradas fueron vendidas antes de que llegáramos.

The seats were sold before we arrived.

Note: In English it is possible to create a passive construction in which the subject

corresponds to an indirect object in the corresponding active sentence, e.g. ‘Mary

was awarded a scholarship’ (compare active ‘They awarded a scholarship to Mary’).

A true passive construction in Spanish using ser is not possible in this instance. See

15.2.2 and 15.2.3.

Alternatives to passive constructions

Although passive constructions with serare common in formal written and

spoken Spanish, and in newspapers, they are sometimes over-used by

English students who neglect a number of equivalent constructions more

commonly employed by native speakers in certain contexts.

Typically, these are: (i) cases where a specific agent or ‘doer’ of an action

is not expressed, (ii) in less formal written language, and (iii) in everyday

speech.

15.2

15.1.2

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Alternatives

to passive

constructions

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