When a Romanian passive does name its doer — the "by X" of "the law was passed by Parliament" — it marks that agent with de or, more precisely, de către. Choosing between them is mostly a register decision, with one clean semantic split for non-human causes. But the deeper lesson of this page is the one Romanian itself keeps insisting on: the agent phrase is the part the language most likes to leave out. Romanian's instinct, far more than English's, is to suppress the doer and use an agentless construction (the se-passive). So this page does two things — it teaches you the de / de către split for the times you do name the agent, and it teaches you to recognize when naming the agent is fighting the grain of the language.
de către: the precise, formal agent marker
De către is the unambiguous, careful way to mark a human or institutional agent in the a fi passive. It is the register of laws, news reports, official documents, and academic prose. It says, cleanly: "this is the doer."
Legea a fost adoptată de către Parlament.
The law was adopted by Parliament. (formal)
Decizia a fost luată de către consiliul de administrație.
The decision was made by the board of directors. (formal)
Lucrarea a fost evaluată de către doi profesori independenți.
The paper was evaluated by two independent professors. (academic)
The virtue of de către is precision: because it can only mean "by (the agent)," it never collides with the many other uses of plain de (of, from, with, about, since…). That is exactly why bureaucratic and legal Romanian prefers it — in a sentence with several de-phrases, de către unmistakably tags the doer.
Plain de: colloquial agent, and the marker for cause and instrument
Plain de does double duty. First, it is the colloquial agent marker — in everyday speech and neutral writing, you just say de:
Tortul a fost făcut de mama.
The cake was made by my mom. (neutral / colloquial)
Sunt iubit de toți colegii mei.
I'm loved by all my colleagues.
Second — and this is the semantic split that matters — plain de (never de către) marks a non-agentive cause or instrument: a force of nature, an emotion, a substance, something that is the source of a state rather than a deliberate doer. With these, de către is simply wrong, because de către implies a willful agent.
Drumul era acoperit de zăpadă.
The road was covered with/by snow.
Casa a fost distrusă de incendiu.
The house was destroyed by the fire.
Era epuizat de oboseală.
He was exhausted from/by tiredness.
Cerul e acoperit de nori.
The sky is covered with clouds.
Snow does not decide to cover a road; fire does not choose to destroy a house. These are causes, not agents, so they take plain de. The English translation even wavers between "by" and "with" here ("covered with snow") — a good signal that you are in cause/instrument territory, not agent territory.
| Type of "by X" | Marker | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Human / institutional agent (formal) | de către | votată de către parlament |
| Human / institutional agent (colloquial) | de | făcut de mama |
| Non-human cause / force | de only | distrus de incendiu |
| Instrument / substance / state-source | de only | acoperit de zăpadă |
| Diffuse / collective "everyone" | de | iubit de toți |
But Romanian would rather drop the agent
Here is the cultural-grammatical fact English speakers must internalize. English reaches for the passive in order to name the agent gracefully, or to put the patient first while still keeping the doer ("The novel was written by a Nobel laureate"). Romanian's reflex is the opposite: when the doer is general, obvious, or unimportant, Romanian drops it entirely and uses the se-passive, which has no agent slot at all.
Aici se vorbește română.
Romanian is spoken here. (no agent — se-passive)
Casa s-a vândut repede.
The house sold quickly / was sold quickly. (agentless)
Se construiește un pod nou peste râu.
A new bridge is being built over the river. (agentless)
You cannot bolt a de-agent onto a se-passive — se vorbește română de toți is wrong. The moment you genuinely need to name the agent, you must switch to the a fi passive (Româna este vorbită de milioane de oameni). So the presence of a de-agent is, in a sense, the reason you reached for a fi in the first place. If you find you don't actually need to name the doer, the more idiomatic choice is to drop it and use se — see Choosing the Passive: se vs a fi.
Mașina a fost reparată.
The car was repaired. (agent dropped — still a fi, but no 'de' phrase, because who fixed it is irrelevant)
Note in that last example: even within the a fi passive, you are free to omit the agent. You only add de / de către when the doer carries real information. The default, across both passives, is to leave it unsaid.
A note on de's wider life
The same little word de you use for the agent is one of the busiest prepositions in Romanian — it also means "of," "from," "about," "since," "made of," and more (see Uses of de). This overload is exactly why de către exists as a disambiguating variant for the agent. But don't over-correct: in cause/instrument readings (acoperit de zăpadă) the de is fixed and de către is impossible, so the disambiguation only applies to genuine willful agents.
Common Mistakes
❌ Drumul era acoperit de către zăpadă.
Wrong — snow is a cause, not a willful agent; use plain 'de'.
✅ Drumul era acoperit de zăpadă.
The road was covered with snow.
❌ Tortul a fost făcut de către mama (în vorbire).
Stiff — 'de către' is over-formal for a casual sentence about your mom's cake.
✅ Tortul a fost făcut de mama.
The cake was made by my mom.
❌ Casa a fost tăiată de către ferăstrău.
Wrong — a saw is an instrument, not an agent; instruments take plain 'de' (or 'cu' for tools).
✅ Lemnul a fost tăiat cu ferăstrăul. / Copacul a fost doborât de furtună.
The wood was cut with the saw. / The tree was felled by the storm.
❌ Aici se vorbește română de toți.
Wrong — the se-passive has no agent slot; don't attach 'de + agent' to it.
✅ Aici se vorbește română. / Româna e vorbită de mulți.
Romanian is spoken here. / Romanian is spoken by many.
❌ Romanul a fost scris cu un autor celebru.
Wrong marker — the agent takes 'de / de către', not 'cu'.
✅ Romanul a fost scris de un autor celebru.
The novel was written by a famous author.
Key Takeaways
- The passive agent is de (colloquial / neutral) or de către (formal, precise — laws, news, academia).
- De către is for a deliberate human or institutional doer only; it disambiguates against de's many other meanings.
- Non-human cause, force, instrument, or substance always takes plain de: acoperit de zăpadă, distrus de incendiu.
- Romanian prefers to drop the agent — use the agentless se-passive when the doer is general or unimportant.
- You cannot add a de-agent to a se-passive; needing to name the agent is what pushes you to the a fi passive.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Choosing the Passive: se vs a fiB2 — A decision guide for Romanian's two passives — the se-passive for generic, agentless, habitual statements, and a fi + participle for a specific completed event with a nameable agent.
- The Passive with a fi + participleB2 — Romanian's periphrastic passive — a fi in any tense plus an agreeing participle, with an optional 'de (către)' agent — and the crucial fact that this participle agrees while the perfect-compus participle does not.
- The a fi Passive Across TensesB2 — How to move the Romanian a fi passive through every tense and mood by conjugating only the auxiliary a fi — este/era/a fost/va fi/ar fi/să fie construit — while the participle stays put and agrees with the subject.
- The Impersonal se (one/you/they)B1 — How Romanian uses se for fully generic statements with no specific subject — the natural rendering of English 'one', 'you', 'they', and 'people'.