Passive in Spanish (voz pasiva)
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In English and Spanish we use both, the active and the passive voice. In the active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action. In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence receives the action.
The passive is a verb form that is used when the subject of the verb is the person or thing that is affected by the action. To form it, you need to follow this steps:
subject | verb | object | |
---|---|---|---|
Active voice |
La periodista The journalist |
escribe writes |
los artículos. the articles. |
Passive voice |
Los artículos The articles |
son escritos are written |
por la periodista. by the journalist. |
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In English we use the verb to be with a past participle (was painted, are made...) to form the passive. In Spanish, the passive is formed exactly the same way by using the verb ser (to be) and a past participle. To say who the action was done by, you use the preposition por (by).
Passive = verb "ser" + participle + "por" (verb to be + past participle + by)
Tense | Sentence |
---|---|
Presente |
El pastel es horneado por mi abuela. (The cake is baked by my grandmother.) |
Pretérito Perfecto |
El pastel ha sido horneado por mi abuela. (The cake has been baked by my grandmother.) |
Indefinido |
El pastel fue horneado por mi abuela. (The cake was baked by my grandmother.) |
Imperfecto |
El pastel era horneado por mi abuela. (The cake was baked by my grandmother.) |
Pluscuamperfecto |
El pastel había sido horneado por mi abuela. (The cake had been baked by my grandmother.) |
Futuro simple |
El pastel será horneado por mi abuela. (The cake will be baked by my grandmother.) |
Futuro compuesto |
El pastel habrá sido horneado por mi abuela. (The cake will have been baked by my grandmother.) |
Condicional simple |
El pastel sería horneado por mi abuela. (The cake would be baked by my grandmother.) |
Condicional compuesto |
El pastel habría sido horneado por mi abuela. (The cake would have been baked by my grandmother.) |
Spanish, in general prefers the use of the active voice, especially in everyday communication. However newscasters use the passive voice and it appears frequently in written communication, especially in newspapers or magazine articles.
Spanish has another passive construction more frequently used than ser + past participle. It is called the pasiva refleja because one of its components is the reflexive pronoun se.
Se + 3rd person singular or plural
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