8.8 Use of
estar for passive voice (status passive)
The Spanish
knows to forms of passive voice. We already had a glance
at the first one with ser. The passive with ser is also
called the process passive. The other passive voice
- the status passive - with estar shall be presented
here.
Status
passive
El está
bautizado. = He is baptised. He has the status
of being baptised. It is not known and not
said anything
about the process of him being baptised.
Process
passive
El es bautizado.
= He is (being) baptised. This sentence is
about the process that he is baptised.
As now seen in the examples the
difference between the two passive voices is that the
one describes a status (with estar)
the other describes a process (with ser).
In English we can differentiate them the way that the
process passive can be translated with the passive continuous
that also aims at describing the process.
The passive voice with estar
(status passive) is formed with the conjugation
of estar in the right tense and the perfect participle.
Again please remember that the perfect participle is
to be in accordance with the subject in gender and number
(see also chapter
8.4).
