The Spanish passive, and the two things said instead
Spanish does have a ser passive — la casa fue construida en 1920 — but it belongs to written and journalistic language. In speech people use the pasiva refleja, se construyó la casa, or an impersonal third-person plural, me robaron, which is how you say "I was robbed".
Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.
The trap
English reaches for the passive constantly. “The house was built in 1920.” “My phone was stolen.” “Spanish is spoken here.” Translate each of those directly and you get grammatical Spanish that no one in Lima would have said:
| English-shaped | What you actually hear |
|---|---|
| La casa fue construida en 1920. | La casa se construyó en 1920. |
| Mi celular fue robado. | Me robaron el celular. |
| El español es hablado acá. | Acá se habla español. |
None of the left-hand column is wrong. All of it is the wrong register for conversation, and the third one is odd in any register.
How the ser passive works, for when you do need it
Ser + past participle, with the participle agreeing in gender and number with the subject. The doer, if mentioned at all, comes last after por.
- La tarea fue hecha en casa por ellos.
- El puente será inaugurado el lunes.
- Los documentos han sido firmados.
The tense sits on ser, so the whole set is available: es comida, era comida, fue comida, ha sido comida, había sido comida, será comida, sería comida.
Where it genuinely belongs: news reports, official notices, academic and legal writing, and history. El Convento de San Francisco fue construido en el siglo XVII is exactly right on a museum plaque.
What people say instead, 1: se + verb
The pasiva refleja is the workhorse. Put se in front of the verb and conjugate the verb to agree with the thing, not with any person:
- Acá se vende pan. — singular thing, singular verb.
- Se venden departamentos. — plural thing, plural verb.
- La catedral se construyó en 1746.
- El ceviche se prepara con limón y ají.
This is everywhere in Peru: shop signs (se alquila, se necesita cajera), recipes, instructions, history. The agreement is the only thing to get right — se venden casas, not se vende casas, though you will see the second on handwritten signs.
When there is no thing to agree with, the verb just stays singular: acá se trabaja mucho, ¿cómo se dice esto?
What people say instead, 2: the bare they-form
For something that happened to you, Spanish does not passivise. It uses an unnamed third-person plural — nobody is claiming there were several thieves:
- Me robaron el celular en el Centro. — My phone was stolen.
- Me cobraron de más. — I was overcharged.
- Te van a llamar mañana. — You’ll be called tomorrow.
- Nos dijeron que esperemos. — We were told to wait.
- Lo operaron el martes. — He was operated on on Tuesday.
This is the single most useful pattern on the page. Almost every English passive with a human subject comes out this way.
Do not confuse estar + participle
Estar + participle looks identical and means something completely different. Ser is the event; estar is the state left behind:
| La puerta fue cerrada por el portero. | Someone closed it — the action. |
| La puerta está cerrada. | It is shut — the situation right now. |
El museo está cerrado los lunes is a fact about Mondays. El museo fue cerrado en 2019 is an event with a date. Mixing them up produces sentences that are grammatical and mean the wrong thing.
Choosing, in one line
- Someone did something to a person → they-form: me robaron.
- A general fact, a process, a sign, a date in history → se: se vende, se construyó.
- News, law, a plaque, formal writing → ser + participle: fue construida.
- The result you are looking at → estar + participle: está cerrada.
Try it
Say each one the way a Peruvian would:
- My wallet was stolen on the combi.
- Houses are sold here.
- The bridge was inaugurated last year. (news bulletin)
- The shop is closed.
→ 1 Me robaron la billetera en la combi. · 2 Se venden casas acá. · 3 El puente fue inaugurado el año pasado. · 4 La tienda está cerrada.
Next
→ Ser vs estar: the rule that actually works → Reflexive verbs, and the other jobs se does → Tú or usted in Peru
Topics Peruvian SpanishRegister and politeness
Fue robado, se robó, or me robaron?
Every question here has a grammatically correct passive among the options. The right answer is the one a Peruvian would actually say.
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1Your phone is stolen in the Centre. You tell a friend:
Answer
Me robaron el celular en el Centro. — For something done to a person, Spanish uses an unnamed third-person plural. Nobody is claiming there were several thieves — it is simply how the idea is built.
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2Sign on a building: ___ departamentos.
Answer
Se venden — In the pasiva refleja the verb agrees with the thing, and *departamentos* is plural. You will see *se vende departamentos* handwritten, but it is not the standard form.
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3Telling a visitor when the cathedral was built, in ordinary conversation:
Answer
La catedral se construyó en 1746. — *Se construyó* is what people say. *Fue construida* is correct but belongs on the plaque rather than in the conversation happening in front of it.
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4El museo está cerrado los lunes tells you:
Answer
It is shut on Mondays — a state. — *Estar* plus a participle describes the situation in front of you. *Fue cerrado* would be the event of closing, usually with a date and an agent.
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5“We were told to wait” comes out in Spanish as:
Answer
Nos dijeron que esperáramos. — Spanish has no passive for this at all — *fuimos dichos* does not exist. The unnamed they-form carries almost every English passive with a human subject.
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6¿Cómo ___ esto en español?
Answer
se dice — With nothing for the verb to agree with, the *se* form stays singular: *¿cómo se dice?* *Es dicho* is a word-for-word translation and not Spanish.
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7Which sentence belongs in a news bulletin rather than a conversation?
Answer
El puente fue inaugurado por el alcalde. — *Ser* plus a participle with *por* and a named agent is journalistic register. The first two are how the same news gets told over breakfast.