- In active sentences, the subject is the one that performs the action.
In passive sentences, the subject is no longer active. Instead, the subject undergoes—or is subject to—the action of the verb.Active Voice
Passive Voice
Subject Verb Prepositional Phrase + One Doing the Action Una nuova dichiarazione è stata rilasciata dal Presidente. A new statement was issued by the president.
Use the sentence breakdowns above to understand the following examples. The active and passive verb phrases will be in bold.Active Voice:
Quest’anno Alice Munro ha vinto il premio Nobel per la Letteratura.
This year Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in literature.Passive Voice:
Quest’anno il premio Nobel per la Letteratura è stato vinto da Alice Munro.
This year the Nobel Prize in literature was won by Alice Munro. - In Italian, passive constructions are characterized by the conjugated auxiliary verb essere, followed by the past participle of the verb expressing the action of the sentence.
The following table shows the verb ammirare (to admire) in the passive voice in the present tense and in the passato prossimo. Note that in the passive voice the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject.Presente Passato prossimo sono ammirato/a sono stato/a ammirato/a sei ammirato/a sei stato/a ammirato/a è ammirato/a è stato/a ammirato/a siamo ammirati/e siamo stati/e ammirati/e siete ammirati/e siete stati/e ammirati/e sono ammirati/e sono stati/e ammirati/e
Only transitive verbs with an expressed direct object can be turned into a passive construction.
The direct object becomes the subject in the passive voice, while the subject of the active sentence becomes the one doing the action, or the agent, and is preceded by the preposition da, as you can see in the above examples.
In a passive sentence, the agent doing the action does not have to be directly stated; rather, it is often implicit.La mia macchina è stata riparata (dal meccanico).
My car was fixed (by the mechanic).
I disegni più belli saranno selezionati (dalla giuria).
The most beautiful drawings will be selected (by a panel of judges). - The meaning of an active sentence is essentially the same as that of the corresponding passive sentence. The ones performing the action play the same roles—only their grammatical relationship changes.
What changes dramatically, however, is the focus of the sentence. The active voice emphasizes the subject as the agent of the action.La polizia interrogò alcuni sospetti.
The police questioned some suspects.
Alcuni sospetti furono interrogati dalla polizia.
Some suspects were questioned by the police.
In the first example, the focus is on the action performed by the police, while the passive sentence places the suspects in the spotlight.
The active voice is a more engaged form of expression. The passive voice, in both Italian and English, is used primarily to emphasize objectivity (i.e. scientific articles), or to draw attention to the receiver of a specific action instead of the performer.