El informe ha sido revisado y será publicado mañana.The report has been reviewed and will be published tomorrow.

You already know the ser passive in the present and preterite: ser in the tense of the action, plus a past participle that agrees with the subject. This article extends the same pattern to the other tenses and to modal verbs and infinitives. The rule does not change, and only the form of ser does.

Quick shortcut: put ser in the tense you need (era, ha sido, será, sería, sea, había sido, habrá sido, habría sido) and add the participle, which always agrees with the subject in gender and number: La casa será construida. Los informes han sido revisados.

Past, future and conditional

Whatever tense the active sentence would use, ser takes that tense in the passive, and the participle stays as an agreeing adjective:

Tense Passive example
Imperfect Las cartas eran revisadas cada semana. (The letters were reviewed every week.)
Present perfect Los informes han sido revisados. (The reports have been reviewed.)
Pluperfect La carta había sido enviada antes. (The letter had been sent earlier.)
Future La casa será construida en 2030. (The house will be built in 2030.)
Future perfect El informe habrá sido revisado para entonces. (The report will have been reviewed by then.)
Conditional Dijeron que el edificio sería demolido en mayo. (They said the building would be demolished in May.)
Conditional perfect El puente habría sido terminado en junio sin la huelga. (The bridge would have been completed in June without the strike.)
Present subjunctive Es importante que el contrato sea firmado hoy. (It is important that the contract be signed today.)
Imperfect subjunctive Pidieron que el informe fuera revisado. (They asked that the report be reviewed.)

In the compound tenses, only ser changes, and it ends up in the form sido: ha sido, había sido, habrá sido. The participle that follows still agrees with the subject, while sido never changes. So Las cartas han sido enviadas has two participles: invariable sido and agreeing enviadas.

With modal verbs and infinitives

A modal verb or periphrasis is followed by the infinitive ser plus the participle. The modal carries the tense, and the participle still agrees with the subject:

  • El informe puede ser revisado mañana. (The report can be reviewed tomorrow.)
  • Los documentos deben ser firmados por el director. (The documents must be signed by the director.)
  • La casa va a ser construida el año que viene. (The house is going to be built next year.) See ir a + infinitive.
  • Quiere ser respetado por todos. (He wants to be respected by everyone.)
  • Esperamos ser invitados. (We hope to be invited.)

The same infinitive pattern appears after prepositions: Antes de ser publicado, el texto fue corregido. (Before being published, the text was corrected.) For the modals themselves, see poder, deber, querer.

"Is being built": estar siendo + participle

To say that an action is in progress, formal Spanish can combine the progressive of estar with ser in the gerund: está siendo construido. (It is being built.) It is typical of news and formal writing:

  • El puente está siendo reparado. (The bridge is being repaired.)
  • Los resultados estaban siendo analizados. (The results were being analysed.)

In everyday speech, Spanish tends to avoid it and prefers an active verb with an unspecified subject (Están reparando el puente) or passive se. See passive and impersonal se.

Only the direct object becomes the subject

As with the present and preterite passive, only a direct object can become the subject. An indirect object stays an indirect object and keeps its a and its pronoun le, with the participle agreeing with the thing given:

  • A Ana le fue entregado el premio. (Ana was given the prize.) The subject is el premio.
  • A los alumnos les fueron explicadas las normas. (The rules were explained to the students.) The subject is las normas, so the participle is feminine plural.

Spanish has no equivalent of "Ana was given a prize" with Ana as the subject. For this reason, the active voice or se is often more natural: Le entregaron el premio a Ana. Intransitive verbs cannot be passivised at all, since they have no direct object (there's no fue llegado).

Agent and style

The agent, if named, still takes por: El informe fue revisado por el comité. The agent is often omitted, as in English. Generally, the ser passive is typical of written Spanish (news, reports, history, legal text), while speech more often uses the active voice or passive se. The longer the verb phrase, the more likely a Spanish writer is to rephrase it.

Common mistakes

  • ❌ Las cartas han sido enviados. → ✅ Las cartas han sido enviadas. (the participle after sido agrees with the subject, here feminine plural.)
  • ❌ Ana fue dada un premio. → ✅ A Ana le fue dado un premio. / A Ana le dieron un premio. (an indirect object cannot become the subject.)
  • ❌ Los documentos deben firmar por el director. → ✅ Los documentos deben ser firmados por el director. (a passive after a modal needs ser + participle.)

Quick check

  1. Put the verb in the passive: Revisarán el informe mañana. → El informe ___ mañana.
  2. Complete: Las ventanas han ___ (ser/estar) limpiadas.
  3. Why is Las casas han sido construido wrong?
  4. Complete: Los resultados ___ (ir a + ser + analizar) por un experto.
  5. Rewrite so that el premio is the subject: Entregaron el premio a Ana.
Show answers
  1. será revisado: the future of ser plus the masculine singular participle.
  2. sido: the compound tense of ser is ha sido / han sido, so Las ventanas han sido limpiadas.
  3. The participle must agree with casas: construidas.
  4. van a ser analizados: ir a + ser + participle, with the participle masculine plural.
  5. A Ana le fue entregado el premio. (The indirect object a Ana keeps its a and le.)

Key takeaways

  • The ser passive works in every tense: put ser in the tense you need and add a participle that agrees with the subject.
  • In compound tenses, the form is ha sido, había sido, habrá sido, with a participle that still agrees: Las cartas han sido enviadas.
  • After a modal verb or ir a, use the infinitive ser + participle: puede ser revisado, va a ser construido.
  • Está siendo + participle expresses "is being done", mostly in formal and written Spanish.
  • Only a direct object can become the subject: an indirect object keeps its a and le (A Ana le fue entregado el premio).
  • The agent takes por, and everyday speech often prefers the active voice or passive se.