Passive voice with the verb essere
In Italian we can express the passive voice in four different ways:
- with the verb essere + past participle
- with the verb venire + past participle
- with si + 3th person singular or plural of the verb
- with andare + past participle
Today, I’ll try to explain you the first case: the use of the passive with the verb essere + past participle.This form of passive can be used with all verb tenses, and the verb essere is conjugated in the same tense as the verb in the active phrase. In this case is possible also to insert the agent (that is the person or thing which does the action) and it is preceded by the preposition da. Example:
Molti comprano il giornale la mattina (active voice - present tense)
Il giornale è comprato da molti la mattina (passive voice - present tense)
Molti hanno comprato il giornale ieri mattina (active voice - present perfect)
Il giornale è stato comprato da molti ieri mattina (passive voice - present perfect)
Una volta molte persone compravano il giornale la mattina (active voice - imperfect)
Una volta il giornale era comprato da molte persone la mattina (passive voice - imperfect)
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