Español 30

Lección Estructuras Práctica Asignación

La voz pasiva

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There are three types of voices both in Spanish and English. Active (what you might think of as "normal"), reflexive, and passive.

In the active voice, the person doing the action is the subject. What is "done" or the person "done-to" is the object of the verb. For example: Goya diseño tapicerías.

In the passive voice, the action is being done to the subject by an agent (a person performing the action on something else). For example: Las tapicerías fueron diseñadas por Goya.

The passive voice has two parts: the conjugated verb ser + the past participle. While the passive can occur in all tenses, and moods, it is most frequently used in the preterite. Remember that to form the past participle, we:

Verb ending	What we do	For example
–ar	Drop the –ar and add –ado.	hablar → habl → hablado
–er	Drop the –er and add –ido.	comer → com → comido
–ir	Drop the –ir and add –ido.	vivir → viv → vivido

There is just one more thing before you practice what you have learned.

The past participle must agree in number and gender with the subject of the verb.
La carta fue escrita.	carta es feminine so escrita is also.
Las cartas fueron escritas.	las cartas is feminine and plural.
El libro fue escrito.	This one is an example of a masculine and singular participle.
Los libros fueron escritos.	this is masculine and plural.

Passive constructions using SE

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*¡Ojo! Spanish avoids the passive with ser when the agent of the action is unknown or irrelevant. The most common way of expressing a passive idea in Spanish —that something happens, but without expressing who in particular does it—, is by using se with a verb in the third person:

Aquí se habla español.

Se come bien en Francia.

¿Comprendiste? Usa la voz pasiva para completar la siguiente acitividad. Pulsa en "Continue" para pasar a la siguiente pregunta. Lanza esta actividad para practicar.