Passive voice, ser and estar

Question

Hello,

Can we make passive voice with both estar and ser? Or only ser? IF we can use both for making passive voice, what time we use one and what time we use the other?

Answer 1

You can separate them like this:

ser -ado/-ido = "what happened"

estar -ado/-ido = "what it's like"

La puerta fue cerrada (por la niña).

What happened? The door was closed (by the girl).

La puerta estaba cerrada.

What was it like? The door was closed.

La comida es preparada por la criada.

What happens? The meal is prepared by the maid.

La comida está preparada.

What's it like? The food is prepared.

Using estar is not really 'passive voice', but a rather description of the state of the object, even though sometimes the wording is the same as English for passive.

• Very interesting. You provide some insight here, I think!! - Janice Mar 5, 2010
• Very nice contrast. Gets my vote. - qfreed Mar 5, 2010

Answer 2

classic passive voice Ser+past participle

Estar +past particlple

The past participle in this construction serves as an adjective rather than a verb.

Passive se

The answer to your original question is not obvious. It used to confuse me because I had read that the passive voice could be made using either SER or ESTAR. Yet when you typically refer to passive voice in Spanish you are referring to either the passive se (reflexive passive) or the classic passive (Ser+past participle).

I later found out in actuality there is the verbal passive (classic passive) and the adjectival passive (estar+past participle). So technically, yes, you can make the passive with SER or ESTAR, but on a general accepted level, only SER is used to form the verbal passive (verbal passive). The adjectival passive would not be considered passive voice.

If you have nothing better to do than confuse yourself, read this article especially where it refers to the two passives: verbal and adjectival passives.

passive voice

• I will definitely read the article! Thanks for the link. - Janice Mar 5, 2010

Answer 3

I know this is an old thread and hopefully you have this sorted by now, but just in case... here's a link with a short, but clear explanation on the differences of ser and estar with a past participle.

Hope that helps!

Answer 4

Hi panzer, please respect correct spelling and capitalization on this site, thanks.

Passive is made with ser.

Esta casa es construida, fue construida