Passive Voice: Partic

Think of a normal sentence like a straight line. "The chef prepares the food." The chef is the star. In the passive voice, we flip the script. The food becomes the star. "The food is prepared by the chef." Now, the food is the subject. The verb changes to reflect this new focus. You are essentially turning the action around. It is like looking at a photo from the perspective of the background. In Spanish, we use the verb ser (to be) as a helper. Then we add the main action as a past participle. This participle acts a lot like an adjective. It has to match the subject in gender and number. If the pizza is feminine, the verb must look feminine too. It is all about harmony and balance in the sentence.

1. 1Building this is like following a simple recipe. You need four main ingredients.
2. 2Start with the Subject. This is the thing receiving the action (e.g., La carta).
3. 3Add the verb ser. Conjugate it to match your subject (e.g., es).
4. 4Add the Past Participle. For -ar verbs, use -ado. For -er/-ir verbs, use -ido.
5. 5Make it Agree. Change the ending to -o, -a, -os, or -as to match the subject.
6. 6(Optional) Add por + the person doing it (e.g., por el cartero).
7. 7Example: Las galletas (Subject) + son (ser) + comidas (participle) = The cookies are eaten.

Use this when the result is more important than the person. Imagine you are at a museum. You see a sign: "This painting was painted in 1920." You care about the art, not just the artist. Use it in formal writing or news. "The law is approved by the president." It sounds professional and serious. You might use it in a job interview. "These projects were completed by me." It highlights the work done. Use it when you don't know who did the action. "The window was broken." (Oops, nobody knows who did it!). It is great for describing historical facts. "The city was founded in 1500." It keeps the focus on the big events.

Don't use this in casual, everyday chats with friends. If you say "The coffee is drunk by me" at a cafe, people will stare. It sounds like a robot trying to be human. In daily Spanish, we prefer the active voice. Just say "I drink the coffee." Also, avoid it if the sentence gets too long and clunky. Spanish speakers love the "Passive se" for general things. Instead of "Spanish is spoken here," they say Se habla español. The ser passive is for specific events. Don't use it with verbs that don't take an object. You can't say "The bed was slept" in Spanish. It just doesn't work. Keep it for clear actions done to things.

Matching is the biggest trap. Many people forget that the participle is like an adjective. If you have Las casas, you must use vendidas. You cannot say Las casas son vendido. That is a grammar crime! Another mistake is using estar instead of ser. Estar describes a state (The door is closed). Ser describes the action (The door is closed by the guard). Think of ser as the movie and estar as the photo. Also, watch out for irregular participles. Hacer becomes hecho, not hacido. Escribir becomes escrito. If you use the wrong one, you might sound like a toddler. Yes, even native speakers mess this up when they are tired. Take a breath and check your endings!

People often confuse this with the "Passive se." The se version is much more common in the streets. Se venden casas (Houses for sale) is everywhere. The ser passive is the se version's formal cousin. Use ser when you want to mention *who* did it using por. You can't really do that with se. Also, compare it to the present continuous. Juan está comiendo (Juan is eating) is active. La pizza es comida (The pizza is eaten) is passive. One is about the person acting. The other is about the food's fate. It is like the difference between being the hammer or being the nail. Choose your perspective wisely!