ABSTRACT
Most past participles that can function as adjectives can appear with ser without creating a passive sentence: su reacción era exagerada ‘his reaction was exaggerated’, mi llanto era desesperado ‘my weeping was desperate’, su cara me era desconocida, ‘her/his face was unknown to me’. Verbal participles form passive sentences when used in the same way: la ciudad fue destruida ‘the city was destroyed’, eran perseguidos ‘they were being persecuted/pursued’. In the latter case it may be possible to make the verbal participle into an adjective by using estar, e.g. la ciudad estaba destruida ‘the city was in a state of destruction’. See 28.2.5 for details.
