grammar.verbs.participle-uses
The participle beyond perfect tenses
Outside haber, the participle is an adjective and agrees: la tienda cerrada, ventanas abiertas, estar + participle for resulting states.
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Explanation
With estar it expresses the state resulting from an action: la puerta está cerrada (someone closed it; now it's closed). As a plain adjective it modifies nouns: un documento firmado, ideas equivocadas.
Absolute constructions open formal sentences: terminada la reunión, salimos ('the meeting over, we left'). Agreement applies everywhere except after haber.
Watch the agreement split: after haber the participle is frozen in -o (hemos abierto las ventanas), but everywhere else — with estar, ser, or as a plain adjective — it agrees in gender and number (las ventanas están abiertas). A handful of verbs keep an irregular participle for these uses (abierto, escrito, roto, hecho, puesto, vuelto).
Examples
The tickets are already sold.
Region: global
Once the payment is made, I'll send you the receipt.
Region: global
The letters are already written and signed; I've written twenty today.
Region: global