Passive sentences in Italian

If you’re a language learner sooner or later you’ll come across passive voice.
So, in this article I’m going to teach you how to form passive sentences in Italian.

In Italian there are two types of sentences: active sentences and passive sentences.

While in active sentences the focus is on the subject who carries out the action, in passive sentences the focus is on the action that is carried out.
So, the subject of an active sentence becomes the receiver of the action – the actor – in a passive sentence. Moreover, the object of an active sentence becomes the subject of a passive sentence.

Example:

	FORMA ATTIVA	FORMA PASSIVA
Subject	Il gatto The cat	Il biscotto The biscuit
Verb	Mangia eats	è mangiato is eaten
Object/Actor	il biscotto the biscuit	dal gatto by the cat

USE

Passive sentences in Italian are particularly useful if:

–    The identity of the actor is unknown or irrelevant;
–    You don’t want to say who the responsible of an action is;
–    You’re talking about  ageneral truth;
–    You want to highlight the thing or person acted on;

FORMATION

There are four different ways to form the passive in Italian:

1. VERBO ESSERE + PARTICIPIO PASSATO
This is the most used form. If master this form and use it to make Italian passive sentences, you are 99% sure you won’t make any mistake.

This can be used in every type of tense – indicative, conjunctive, etc – with the exception of the trapassato remoto.

Examples:

a. Maria ha scritto una lettera -> La lettera è stata scritta da Maria
Maria wrote a letter -> The letter was written by Maria
b. Maria scrive una lettera -> La lettera è scritta da Maria
Maria writes a letter -> The letter is written by Maria
c. Non credo che Maria abbia scritto questa lettera -> Non credo che questa lettera sia stata scritta da Maria

The actor is usually added at the end, introduced with the preposition da, dal, dalla, dai, dalle, dal, dagli.

2. VERBO VENIRE + PARTICIPIO PASSATO
This form isn’t used with both compound tenses and the imperative.

Ex: Maria chiude la porta -> La porta viene chiusa da Maria
Maria closes the door -> The door is closed by Maria

The actor is usually added at the end, introduced with the preposition da, dal, dalla, dai, dalle, dal, dagli.

3. VERBO ANDARE + PARTICIPIO PASSATO
This form is used to express two different meanings in Italian.

a. It can express an action that is taking place in the passive form. This form can be used with every tense but it’s generally used only with few verbs like to destroy, to lose, to spend (money), to waste, to pour, etc.

Ex: Abbiamo perso il libro sull’autobus -> Il libro è andato perso sull’autobus
We lost the book on the bus -> the book was lost on the bus

b. It can express the necessity of a passive action; This form cannot be used with compound tenses

Ex: Dobbiamo pagare la bolletta entro giugno -> Questa bolletta va pagata entro giugno

4. SI + VERBO TRANSITIVO
This form is used only at the third person singular and plural. In this case, the subject of the passive sentence is generally placed after the verb.

Examples:

a. Dalla finestra vedevo tre alberi -> Dalla finestra si vedevano tre alberi
I could see three trees from the window -> Three trees could be seen from the window
b. Dalla finestra vedevo il mare -> Dalla finestra si vedeva il mare

Sometimes this form can indicate an obligation:

Ex: Qui non si fuma!

 

I hope I’ve helped you learn how to form passive sentences in Italian. If you want to make some practice with passive sentences in Italian, you can do it with this exercise.

If you need to master or revise advanced Italian grammar, have a look at my book Sos Italian grammar C1-C2.

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Credits

Original image by Bergadder