what construction is being used here?

Question

Turn into the passive voice: "La secretaria ha estado ordenando los papeles."

I chose this one: Los papeles han sido ordenados por la secretaria.

but it marked it as wrong.

instead it said the right one was:

Los papeles han estado siendo ordenados por la secretaria.

what construction is being used here?

Silvia Piriz · Accepted Answer

Hola Luke T.
Great question! Both sentences are grammatical, but they are not the same construction and that’s why the quiz marked one as incorrect.
Your option:
Los papeles han sido ordenados por la secretaria.
This is the standard passive voice in Spanish (ser + past participle). It focuses on the result of the action: the papers are now in an ordered state.
The answer expected by the quiz:
Los papeles han estado siendo ordenados por la secretaria.
This is the progressive passive, which mirrors the original sentence more closely. The active sentence “La secretaria ha estado ordenando los papeles” emphasizes an ongoing action in the recent past, not just the result.
So the key difference is aspect:

han sido ordenados → result-focused passive

han estado siendo ordenados → ongoing process-focused passive

Because the original sentence uses ha estado ordenando (present perfect progressive), the quiz expects the passive with the same progressive aspect.
In real-life Spanish, the simpler passive (han sido ordenados) is far more common, but for this exercise the goal is to preserve the original tense and aspect exactly.
Hope that clears it up!
Hasta pronto
Silvia