🔍 In short. The italian passive voice has three auxiliaries, not one. Essere + past participle is the workhorse, available in every tense (il dipinto è stato restaurato dal museo). Venire + past participle is the dynamic alternative, limited to simple tenses, common in regulations, procedures and habitual processes (la mostra viene inaugurata domani). Andare + past participle carries a deontic punch, equivalent to deve essere, also restricted to simple tenses (il modulo va presentato entro venerdì). On top of these, the si passivante hides the agent altogether (si vendono libri usati). This B2 guide untangles when each auxiliary is allowed, what register it carries, and the traps that English speakers stumble into.
Cosa impareremo oggi
👆🏻 Jump to section
- The one-liner rule for the italian passive voice
- Essere + past participle: the workhorse
- Italian passive voice: agreement and the agent with da
- Venire + past participle: the dynamic auxiliary
- Andare + past participle: obligation and lexicalised loss
- Si passivante: hiding the agent
- Italian passive voice restrictions: only transitive verbs
- Italian passive voice cheat sheet
- Italian passive voice: five traps for English speakers
- Italian passive voice in dialogue: a museum exhibition in Lucca
- Mini-challenge
- Frequently asked questions
- Related guides
The one-liner rule for the italian passive voice
The italian passive voice turns the object of an active sentence into the subject of a new one, and lets you push the agent into the background or remove it altogether. The choice of auxiliary is not just stylistic. Essere is neutral and works in any tense, venire highlights the action as it unfolds and only fits simple tenses, andare adds a duty colour or sticks to a handful of verbs of loss. The si passivante is the fourth option, an agentless construction that natives reach for constantly. Pick the auxiliary that matches the meaning, respect the tense restrictions, make the past participle agree, and you are already past the most common pitfalls.
Essere + past participle: the workhorse
The default form of the italian passive voice is essere + past participle. This pairing is available in every tense an Italian verb has, with the single exception of the trapassato remoto. It is the neutral, all-purpose option: when a textbook says “the passive”, this is the structure it usually means. The subject of the new sentence is the entity undergoing the action, the past participle agrees with that subject in gender and number, and the agent, if expressed, is introduced by da.
- Il dipinto è stato restaurato dal museo.
The painting has been restored by the museum. - Le sale sono state riallestite per la nuova mostra.
The rooms have been redesigned for the new exhibition. - Il manoscritto fu catalogato nel 1923 dalla Biblioteca Nazionale.
The manuscript was catalogued in 1923 by the National Library. - Quel romanzo è stato tradotto in dodici lingue.
That novel has been translated into twelve languages. - Le iscrizioni saranno raccolte entro il quindici settembre.
The registrations will be collected by September fifteenth.
Notice that the same structure works in present (è restaurato), passato prossimo (è stato restaurato), imperfect (era restaurato), passato remoto (fu restaurato), future (sarà restaurato), conditional (sarebbe restaurato), and subjunctive (che sia restaurato). The full tense palette of the italian passive voice is on display here, in a way that venire and andare simply cannot match. The only forbidden combination is the trapassato remoto: *dopo che furono stati visti does not exist, you drop the stati and use the simple form (dopo che furono visti).
One detail worth remembering about this corner of the italian passive voice. With essere, the result-versus-action ambiguity is real. La porta è aperta can mean “the door is open” (a state) or “the door is being opened / gets opened” (an action). Context usually resolves it, but if you want to lock the dynamic reading, Italian switches to venire. We will return to that.
Italian passive voice: agreement and the agent with da
Two micro-rules govern every passive in the italian passive voice system: the past participle agrees, and the agent takes da. Both feel obvious once seen, both cause hesitation under pressure. Agreement is with the grammatical subject of the passive sentence, which used to be the direct object in the active version. Singular masculine, feminine, plural masculine, plural feminine: four endings to track.
- Il volume è stato pubblicato.
The volume has been published. (m.sg.) - La mostra è stata inaugurata.
The exhibition has been opened. (f.sg.) - I cataloghi sono stati distribuiti.
The catalogues have been distributed. (m.pl.) - Le opere sono state restaurate.
The works have been restored. (f.pl.)
For the agent in the italian passive voice, the preposition is always da, never con. The latter introduces the instrument used, not the doer of the action. A useful pair: il restauro è stato eseguito dai tecnici con strumenti molto delicati, that is “the restoration was carried out by the technicians with very delicate tools”. Dai tecnici = agent. Con strumenti delicati = instrument. Mixing them up is a typical B1 fossil you want to drop at B2.
A more formal variant exists: da parte di. It marks an agent in contrast with another, or one whose role is being underlined. Civic registers love it. Da parte della Soprintendenza è stata richiesta una verifica. “A check was requested by the Soprintendenza.” It sounds bureaucratic, which is often exactly the point.
🎯 Mini-task. Turn each active sentence into a passive with essere, making the past participle agree.
- Il museo ha restaurato la pala d’altare.
- La biblioteca ha catalogato cinquemila manoscritti.
- I tecnici hanno installato le nuove vetrine.
- L’archivio comunale ha digitalizzato le fotografie storiche.
- La traduttrice ha tradotto due romanzi.
👉 Show answers
1. La pala d’altare è stata restaurata dal museo.
2. Cinquemila manoscritti sono stati catalogati dalla biblioteca.
3. Le nuove vetrine sono state installate dai tecnici.
4. Le fotografie storiche sono state digitalizzate dall’archivio comunale.
5. Due romanzi sono stati tradotti dalla traduttrice.
Venire + past participle: the dynamic auxiliary
The second auxiliary of the italian passive voice is venire. It does the same job as essere, but with one important nuance: it locks the dynamic reading. Venire + past participle says “an action is being carried out”, “a process is unfolding”, “this happens regularly”. It is the auxiliary of procedures, regulations, recurring habits and instructions, exactly the register you read on a museum notice or in a civic handbook.
- La nuova mostra viene inaugurata domani alle diciotto.
The new exhibition is being opened tomorrow at six. - I manoscritti vengono digitalizzati uno alla volta.
The manuscripts are being digitised one at a time. - Ogni autunno la grande pala viene spostata nel laboratorio di restauro.
Every autumn the large altarpiece is moved to the restoration workshop. - Le iscrizioni venivano raccolte in archivio fino agli anni Settanta.
The registrations used to be collected in the archive until the seventies. - Nel 1718 a Lucca venne aperta la prima biblioteca pubblica.
In 1718 the first public library was opened in Lucca.
Tense restrictions are the part that catches learners off guard. Venire as a passive auxiliary works only in simple tenses: present (viene restaurato), imperfect (veniva restaurato), future (verrà restaurato), conditional (verrebbe restaurato), passato remoto (venne restaurato), and the corresponding subjunctives. It does not work in compound tenses. *è venuto restaurato, *era venuto restaurato, *sarà venuto restaurato are all impossible. When you need the passato prossimo, the pluperfect or the future perfect, you must fall back on essere.
The agent slot inside this branch of the italian passive voice behaves the same way as with essere: it is introduced by da when expressed, and is often left implicit when the doer is generic or institutional. I documenti vengono firmati dal direttore or simply i documenti vengono firmati. Both are fine; the first names the responsible party, the second focuses on the procedure.
One more nuance. In the passato remoto, the difference between fu and venne is genuinely felt. Il volume fu pubblicato nel 1956 states a historical fact. Il volume venne pubblicato nel 1956 highlights the act of publication, the moment something started circulating. Translators reach for venne when they want to dramatise; chroniclers prefer fu.
Andare + past participle: obligation and lexicalised loss
The third auxiliary of the italian passive voice is andare, and it has two distinct lives. The first is deontic: andare + past participle is equivalent to dover essere + past participle, meaning “must be done”, “ought to be done”, “is to be done”. It is the auxiliary of civic notices, instruction sheets, recipes, regulations and any context that prescribes a procedure.
- Il modulo va presentato entro venerdì alle dodici.
The form must be submitted by Friday at noon. - Le iscrizioni vanno inviate per posta elettronica.
Registrations are to be sent by email. - Le regole della biblioteca vanno rispettate da tutti.
The library rules must be respected by everyone. - I libri presi in prestito vanno restituiti entro tre settimane.
Borrowed books must be returned within three weeks. - Le opere fragili vanno spostate con cura.
Fragile works must be moved with care.
The same tense restriction as venire applies to this slice of the italian passive voice, with an extra exclusion: deontic andare works in simple tenses except the passato remoto, and it cannot take its own compound forms. Va presentato, andava presentato, andrà presentato, andrebbe presentato: all fine. *è andato presentato, *andò presentato: both ungrammatical. The conditional andrebbe simply softens the obligation: il modulo andrebbe presentato entro venerdì = “the form should be submitted by Friday” (less peremptory than va presentato).
In colloquial Italian, the imperfect of andare + past participle expresses a missed obligation in the past: queste cose andavano dette subito means “these things should have been said at once”. The conditional form is also extremely common in newspaper-style prose: andrebbe sottolineato che… “it should be stressed that…”.
The second life of andare as a passive auxiliary is narrower and lexicalised. With a small group of past participles meaning loss, destruction or disappearance (perso, smarrito, distrutto, disperso, dimenticato, deluso, speso), andare simply replaces essere, without any obligation flavour. The agent is never expressed. The English equivalent is often “get + adjective”.
- L’assegno è andato perso fra le carte dello studio notarile.
The cheque got lost among the papers of the notary’s office. - Nel 1966 a Firenze andarono distrutte molte opere d’arte.
In 1966 in Florence many works of art were destroyed. (historic flood) - Il manoscritto è andato smarrito durante il trasloco dell’archivio.
The manuscript got lost during the archive’s move. - Quei fondi sono andati spesi senza un vero criterio.
Those funds were spent without any real rationale.
Two cues distinguish the two uses of andare within the italian passive voice. In the deontic case, the meaning is dover essere, the verb is open to any transitive past participle, and the agent can be added with da. In the lexicalised case, the meaning is “get + lost / destroyed / forgotten”, the participle comes from a closed list, and the agent is never expressed. If you can swap in deve essere, you are looking at the deontic andare; if you cannot, you are dealing with the lexicalised one.
Si passivante: hiding the agent
The fourth strategy of the italian passive voice is the si passivante, a passive built without any of the three auxiliaries. It uses the clitic si + a third-person transitive verb, and treats the would-be direct object as the grammatical subject. The verb agrees in number. The agent is almost always left implicit (it is understood to be human and generic).
- Nel laboratorio si restaurano dipinti antichi.
In the workshop antique paintings are restored. - Si vendono libri usati al banco accanto all’ingresso.
Second-hand books are sold at the counter next to the entrance. - In archivio si conservano documenti del Quattrocento.
Documents from the fifteenth century are kept in the archive. - Si cercano volontari per la prossima campagna di catalogazione.
Volunteers are sought for the next cataloguing campaign. - In biblioteca non si parla a voce alta.
In the library one does not speak in a loud voice.
Agreement is the most-watched detail in this strategy of the italian passive voice. If the would-be object is plural, the verb is plural: si restaurano dipinti, not si restaura dipinti. If it is singular, the verb is singular: si restaura il dipinto. This number agreement is the cleanest test that separates the si passivante (passive value) from the si impersonale (impersonal value, always singular, used with intransitive verbs and treated in a separate guide).
The si passivante is at home in shop signs, notices, instructions, advertisements and any context where the doer of the action is generic, irrelevant, or simply not worth naming. Si affitta appartamento. Si parla inglese. Si accettano carte di credito. The construction has its own deeper machinery (compound tenses with essere, agreement of the past participle, behaviour with modal verbs), and we cover those at C1 in a separate guide linked at the end of this article.
Italian passive voice restrictions: only transitive verbs
The hard limit of the italian passive voice is transitivity. Only verbs that take a direct object can be turned passive, in any of the four shapes seen above. Verbs that take an indirect object with a cannot be passivised, even when their English equivalents can. Telefonare a qualcuno, rispondere a qualcuno, ubbidire a qualcuno have no passive version in Italian. You cannot say *il professore è stato ubbidito dai ragazzi; you must rephrase, often with a left-dislocated indirect object or with the si passivante.
- Active: I ragazzi hanno ubbidito al professore. The boys obeyed the teacher.
- Passive (impossible): *Il professore è stato ubbidito dai ragazzi.
- Workaround: Al professore i ragazzi hanno ubbidito (left-dislocation).
Another classic case is the indirect-object construction with promettere or offrire. In English you can say “the student was promised a book”; in the italian passive voice the indirect object allo studente cannot become the subject of a passive. The book, the direct object, is the only candidate. Il libro fu promesso allo studente is the standard solution. Forcing *lo studente fu promesso il libro is ungrammatical, no matter how natural the calque feels.
Italian passive voice cheat sheet
| Form | Tense scope | Nuance | Agent with da? |
|---|---|---|---|
| essere + p.p. | all tenses except trapassato remoto | neutral, default | yes |
| venire + p.p. | simple tenses only | dynamic, action in progress, procedural | yes |
| andare + p.p. (deontic) | simple tenses except passato remoto | obligation = dover essere | yes |
| andare + p.p. (lexicalised loss) | simple and compound tenses | “get lost / destroyed / forgotten”; closed list | no |
| si passivante | simple and compound (essere aux) | agent hidden, often generic | rare (da parte di) |
Italian passive voice: five traps for English speakers
The italian passive voice trips English speakers in a handful of recurring spots. Most of them come from over-applying the English passive to Italian without checking the auxiliary’s tense scope or the verb’s transitivity.
1. Using venire in a compound tense. English “has been opened” is a passato prossimo. The instinct is to write *è venuta aperta. Wrong: in the italian passive voice, venire lives only in simple tenses. The correct form is è stata aperta. Reserve viene aperta for the present, verrà aperta for the future, veniva aperta for the imperfect.
2. Forgetting the agent preposition. English uses “by”. Italian uses da, not con. Il restauro è stato eseguito da tecnici esperti con strumenti specifici. Dai tecnici answers “by whom?”, con strumenti answers “with what?”.
3. Passivising an indirect object. Tempting English structures like “the student was given a book” do not survive translation. In the italian passive voice only the direct object can be the subject of a passive verb. Allo studente è stato dato un libro works; *lo studente è stato dato un libro does not.
4. Mixing deontic andare with the wrong tense. If you mean “must be submitted”, you need a simple tense: va presentato, andava presentato, andrebbe presentato. The compound *è andato presentato and the passato remoto *andò presentato do not exist in this construction. For the past, switch to doveva essere presentato or just è stato presentato.
5. Treating the si passivante as always singular. The verb agrees with the noun. If the noun is plural, the verb is plural: si restaurano dipinti, si vendono libri, si cercano volontari. A singular verb with a plural noun is the impersonal pattern, which belongs to intransitive verbs (and you can read about it in the dedicated B1 guide below). The italian passive voice keeps these two close but separate, and a B2 student is expected to feel the difference.
Italian passive voice in dialogue: a museum exhibition in Lucca
Caterina, conservation curator at Palazzo Mansi in Lucca, walks Federica, a visitor and amateur historian, through a newly opened room of restored paintings.
👩🏼🦰 Caterina: Benvenuta. Questa sala è stata aperta solo la settimana scorsa.
Welcome. This room was opened only last week.
👱🏼♀️ Federica: Bellissima. Le pale sono state restaurate tutte qui?
It’s lovely. Were the altarpieces all restored here?
👩🏼🦰 Caterina: Sì, vengono restaurate nel laboratorio al piano terra. Una alla volta, perché ogni intervento dura mesi.
Yes, they get restored in the workshop on the ground floor. One at a time, because each intervention takes months.
👱🏼♀️ Federica: E questi cartigli accanto alle opere?
And these labels next to the works?
👩🏼🦰 Caterina: Vengono aggiornati ogni due anni. Le informazioni vanno controllate con l’archivio storico prima della stampa.
They get updated every two years. The information has to be checked against the historical archive before printing.
👱🏼♀️ Federica: Ho letto che un dipinto era andato perso negli anni Settanta.
I read that a painting had gotten lost in the seventies.
👩🏼🦰 Caterina: Sì, una tavola minore. È stata ritrovata in un deposito comunale due anni fa e adesso si restaura proprio qui dietro.
Yes, a minor panel. It was found in a municipal storehouse two years ago and now it’s being restored right behind here.
👱🏼♀️ Federica: Posso vedere il laboratorio?
Can I see the workshop?
👩🏼🦰 Caterina: Le visite vanno prenotate con una settimana di anticipo. Però oggi possiamo fare uno strappo: la porta viene aperta solo per gli specialisti, ma con la guida si entra senza problemi.
Visits have to be booked a week in advance. But today we can bend the rules: the door is only opened for specialists, but with a guide one gets in without trouble.
👱🏼♀️ Federica: Magnifico. E quel manoscritto in vetrina?
Wonderful. And that manuscript in the display case?
👩🏼🦰 Caterina: È stato catalogato l’anno scorso dalla Biblioteca Statale. Verrà digitalizzato entro la primavera, così potrà essere consultato online.
It was catalogued last year by the State Library. It will be digitised by spring, so it can be consulted online.
👱🏼♀️ Federica: E le iscrizioni alle visite guidate?
And the registrations for the guided tours?
👩🏼🦰 Caterina: Vanno inviate per posta elettronica al nostro ufficio. Vengono confermate il giorno stesso.
They have to be sent by email to our office. They get confirmed the same day.
Mini-challenge
🎯 Mini-challenge. Choose between essere, venire, andare, or the si passivante for each sentence. More than one option may be acceptable; pick the most idiomatic.
- Il modulo per la visita (è / viene / va) presentato entro venerdì.
- Quel romanzo (è / viene / va) stato tradotto in dodici lingue l’anno scorso.
- Nel laboratorio (sono / vengono / vanno) restaurati dipinti del Seicento.
- Il manoscritto (è / viene / va) andato smarrito durante il trasloco.
- In archivio (si conserva / si conservano) documenti del Quattrocento.
- Le iscrizioni (sono / vengono / vanno) inviate per posta elettronica.
👉 Show answers
1. va presentato (deontic obligation, simple tense)
2. è stato tradotto (compound tense, only essere works)
3. vengono restaurati (recurring procedure, dynamic auxiliary)
4. è andato smarrito (lexicalised loss with compound; andato here is the past participle of andare, not the auxiliary)
5. si conservano (plural noun, plural verb: si passivante)
6. vanno inviate (procedural obligation, civic register)
Test your understanding
A short quiz to consolidate the four constructions of the italian passive voice and the tense restrictions that go with each. Build the right form of the italian passive voice for each prompt, mixing essere, venire, andare and the si passivante. The italian passive voice rewards careful attention to tense scope, so take your time on the andare and venire prompts.
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Frequently asked questions
Recurring questions from learners working on the italian passive voice at B2 level, distilled from real forum threads on WordReference and the Treccani entry on forma attiva, passiva e riflessiva. These seven Q&A cover the parts of the italian passive voice that get queried most often in class and online.
What is the real difference between essere and venire in the italian passive voice?
Essere is neutral and stative-leaning: la porta è aperta can mean the door is open (state) or the door is being opened (action). Venire is unambiguously dynamic and procedural: la porta viene aperta means the door gets opened, an action is happening. Venire is also restricted to simple tenses, while essere works in every tense except the trapassato remoto.
Can venire be used in the passato prossimo?
No. Passive venire has no compound forms. Sentences like è venuto aperto or era venuto restaurato do not exist. When you need a compound tense for the passive, switch to essere: è stato aperto, era stato restaurato.
When do I use andare as a passive auxiliary?
Two contexts. The first is deontic: va presentato = deve essere presentato, must be submitted. Used in regulations, notices, instructions, and limited to simple tenses except the passato remoto. The second is lexicalised, with a small list of past participles of loss or destruction (perso, smarrito, distrutto, dimenticato, speso). Here andare just replaces essere, with no obligation flavour and no agent expressed.
What is the difference between si passivante and si impersonale?
The si passivante uses a transitive verb with an expressed object that becomes the grammatical subject; the verb agrees in number (si restaurano dipinti, si vende un libro). The si impersonale uses intransitive verbs and is always singular (si lavora molto, si parte presto). Number agreement is the cleanest diagnostic.
Why can I say il libro è stato dato allo studente but not lo studente è stato dato un libro?
Italian only allows the direct object to become the subject of a passive sentence. Lo studente is an indirect object (introduced by a in the active form), so it cannot be passivised. You can left-dislocate it for emphasis: Allo studente è stato dato un libro, but the subject of the passive verb remains il libro.
Is the italian passive voice used as often as the English one?
Less often. Italian prefers the active voice for everyday talk, and reserves the passive for civic, journalistic, instructional and historical registers. The si passivante is the everyday workaround, especially for generic doers (si vendono libri, si parla inglese). English learners typically over-use essere passives; switching to si or to an active sentence usually sounds more natural.
Can I express the agent with con instead of da?
No. Con introduces the instrument used to perform the action, not the agent. Il restauro è stato eseguito dai tecnici con strumenti delicati. Dai tecnici answers by whom; con strumenti delicati answers with what. Mixing them is a typical B1 fossil.
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Related guides
- Italian impersonal form with si (B1): the intransitive cousin of the si passivante.
- Si passivante deep dive (C1): compound tenses, modal interaction, agreement edge cases.
- Si va in Tuscan Italian (B2): when the si construction shifts in everyday speech.
- Italian modal verbs (B1): the dover essere connection behind deontic andare.
- Treccani entry on forma attiva, passiva e riflessiva: the native institutional reference.
