English reaches for the passive constantly: the house was built, I was told, it is said, the store is closed. Russian can form true passives too, but it uses them far more sparingly — and crucially, the idiomatic Russian equivalent of most English passives is not a passive at all. It is an active construction with an unspecified subject. Learning advanced Russian style is largely about resisting the urge to translate an English passive with a Russian passive, and instead choosing the construction a Russian would actually use. This page lays out the four agentless devices, ranks them by register, and gives you a translation table from English passives into idiomatic Russian. It builds directly on impersonal sentences and the instrumental of the agent.
Four ways to background the agent
Russian offers four distinct constructions for putting the doer in the background or removing it entirely.
1. The -ся imperfective passive. Add the reflexive particle -ся to an imperfective transitive verb and the object becomes the subject of an ongoing, process-like passive. This is bookish and most common in the present tense.
Здесь стро́ится но́вая шко́ла.
A new school is being built here. (стро́ить → стро́ится; imperfective -ся passive, describing the process)
2. The быть + past passive participle perfective passive. For a completed action with a result, Russian uses быть plus a short-form past passive participle. The agent, if mentioned, goes into the instrumental case. This is the formal, official register.
Дом был постро́ен изве́стным архите́ктором в 1910 году́.
The house was built by a famous architect in 1910. (был постро́ен = perfective passive; the agent архите́ктором is in the instrumental)
3. The indefinite-personal third-person plural. Use the bare 3rd-person-plural verb (стро́ят, говоря́т, сказа́ли) with no pronoun — no они́. This means "people / they (unspecified) do X" and is the everyday, spoken equivalent of an English passive. There is no agent because none is implied; "someone" did it.
Здесь стро́ят но́вую шко́лу.
They're building a new school here. / A new school is being built here. (3rd-pl стро́ят with no они́ — the natural spoken version of the passive above)
4. The reflexive-impersonal verb. A -ся verb with a dative experiencer and no subject at all, describing how an activity goes for someone — comfort, ease, mood. Untranslatable as a passive; it expresses a state.
Здесь хорошо́ рабо́тается.
The work goes well here. / This is a good place to work. (рабо́тается, reflexive-impersonal — no subject; describes how working feels)
Register: who uses which
The four constructions are not interchangeable — they sit at different points on the formality scale.
| Construction | Register | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd-pl indefinite (стро́ят, сказа́ли) | (informal) / neutral | everyday speech; the default spoken passive |
| -ся imperfective passive (стро́ится) | (formal) / bookish | process descriptions, journalism, instructions |
| быть + participle (был постро́ен) | (formal) / (academic) | official, legal, scholarly; named agent in instrumental |
| reflexive-impersonal (рабо́тается) | (informal) / colloquial | describing mood, ease, how an activity feels |
Зако́н был при́нят парла́ментом в про́шлом году́.
The law was passed by parliament last year. (был при́нят — formal/official perfective passive; agent парла́ментом in the instrumental)
Говоря́т, что зима́ бу́дет холо́дной.
They say the winter will be cold. / It is said the winter will be cold. (Говоря́т = 3rd-pl indefinite; the everyday way to render 'it is said')
The agent goes in the instrumental — but usually it's dropped
When a true (быть + participle) passive does name its agent, that agent takes the instrumental case, never a preposition like English "by". But the whole point of the passive is usually to omit the agent — so in practice the instrumental agent appears mainly in formal writing where attribution matters (who built it, who passed it, who wrote it).
Рома́н был напи́сан Толсты́м за не́сколько лет.
The novel was written by Tolstoy over several years. (agent Толсты́м in the instrumental, no preposition — contrast English 'by Tolstoy')
If you are not naming the agent, drop it and the 3rd-plural is almost always the cleaner choice: Рома́н написа́ли за не́сколько лет ("They wrote the novel over several years") sounds more natural in speech than an agentless passive.
The key skill: turn English passives into Russian actives
Here is the translation move that marks fluent Russian. Take an English passive, find its idiomatic Russian — which is overwhelmingly an active construction, not a passive.
| English passive | Idiomatic Russian | Construction |
|---|---|---|
| I was given a book. | Мне да́ли кни́гу. | 3rd-pl indefinite + dative |
| I was told to wait. | Мне сказа́ли подожда́ть. | 3rd-pl indefinite + dative |
| It is said that… | Говоря́т, что… | 3rd-pl indefinite |
| The store is closed. | Магази́н закры́т. | short participle (result-state) |
| This is not done. | Так не де́лается. | -ся impersonal |
| I was advised to rest. | Мне посове́товали отдохну́ть. | 3rd-pl indefinite + dative |
Мне сказа́ли, что о́фис закры́т до понеде́льника.
I was told the office is closed until Monday. (Мне сказа́ли = 'I was told'; закры́т = short participle naming the result-state, the natural 'is closed')
Здесь не ку́рят.
No smoking here. / Smoking is not allowed here. (3rd-pl не ку́рят — the idiomatic Russian for a prohibition English casts as a passive)
The distinguishing insight
English makes the passive a default, all-purpose tool — it freely promotes any object to subject (I was given, the book was read, the question was asked), even when no one cares about the agent. Russian treats the true passive as a marked, register-bound choice and prefers to keep the sentence active with an empty agent slot. The result is that the most fluent Russian rendering of an English passive often has no grammatical subject at all — Мне сказа́ли has only a dative "me" and a subjectless verb. For an English speaker, the instinct to mirror the passive ("I was told" → Я был ска́зан) produces sentences that are not merely stilted but ungrammatical: Russian simply cannot make a person the subject of a passive that way. The skill is to stop translating the passive form and start translating the meaning — "someone told me" — which lands you on the natural active construction.
Common Mistakes
❌ Я был сове́тован отдохну́ть.
Ungrammatical — Russian can't make a person the subject of this passive. 'I was advised' = 3rd-pl + dative: Мне посове́товали отдохну́ть.
✅ Мне посове́товали отдохну́ть.
I was advised to rest.
❌ Я был дан кни́гу.
Ungrammatical — 'I was given a book' is not a Russian passive. Use Мне да́ли кни́гу (they gave me a book).
✅ Мне да́ли кни́гу.
I was given a book.
❌ Дом был постро́ен изве́стным архите́ктором.
Grammatically fine but over-formal for speech — in conversation prefer the active: Дом постро́ил изве́стный архите́ктор.
✅ Дом постро́ил изве́стный архите́ктор.
A famous architect built the house. (natural spoken register; reserve был постро́ен for formal writing)
❌ Дом был постро́ен архите́ктором — used with они́: Они́ стро́ится дом.
Mixed construction — don't add они́ to a -ся passive or to an indefinite 3rd-pl. Either Стро́ится дом (passive) or Стро́ят дом (3rd-pl), never with они́.
✅ Здесь стро́ят дом.
They're building a house here. (3rd-pl indefinite, no они́)
❌ Магази́н закры́тый до понеде́льника.
Wrong participle form — a result-state ('is closed') uses the SHORT participle: Магази́н закры́т. The long form закры́тый is an attribute ('the closed shop').
✅ Магази́н закры́т до понеде́льника.
The store is closed until Monday.
Key Takeaways
- Four agentless routes: -ся imperfective passive (стро́ится), быть + participle perfective passive (был постро́ен), 3rd-pl indefinite-personal (стро́ят, сказа́ли), and reflexive-impersonal (рабо́тается).
- The named agent of a true passive goes in the instrumental (Толсты́м), never with a preposition — but it is usually omitted.
- The everyday spoken equivalent of an English passive is the 3rd-pl indefinite-personal, not a true passive.
- English passives with a human patient → Russian 3rd-pl + dative: I was told = Мне сказа́ли; I was given = Мне да́ли.
- A result-state ("is closed") uses the short participle (закры́т); the long form (закры́тый) is an attribute.
- Don't mirror the English passive onto a person (Я был ска́зан is ungrammatical) — translate the meaning into an active construction.
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Start learning Russian→Related Topics
- Impersonal and Subjectless SentencesB1 — Russian routinely builds full sentences with no grammatical subject at all. Weather (Темне́ет), dative-experiencer states (Мне ску́чно), modal necessity (Мне на́до идти́), indefinite-personal 3rd-plural (Говоря́т, что…) and natural-force instrumentals (Доро́гу занесло́ сне́гом) all do without a nominative subject. This page maps the main subjectless patterns and shows why supplying an English-style dummy subject is the classic transfer error.
- The Instrumental of AgentB2 — In passive sentences, Russian marks the agent — the doer English introduces with 'by' — in the bare instrumental, with NO preposition: Дом постро́ен рабо́чими (the house was built by workers), Кни́га напи́сана изве́стным а́втором. The same case marks the impersonal natural force in accident sentences (Кры́шу сорва́ло ве́тром). Tool, agent, and force all share one case — Russian has no separate word for 'by'.
- The Passive VoiceB2 — Russian splits the passive by aspect. The IMPERFECTIVE passive uses a -ся verb for an ongoing process (Дом стро́ится рабо́чими, Вопро́с обсужда́ется); the PERFECTIVE passive uses быть + a short past passive participle for a result (Дом был постро́ен, Письмо́ напи́сано, Реше́ние при́нято). The agent goes in the INSTRUMENTAL, never with a 'by'-preposition. But the passive is bookish — natural Russian recasts most English passives as indefinite-personal actives (Мне сказа́ли 'I was told').
- Advanced Conditionals and HypotheticalsB2 — Russian builds every unreal condition with one tenseless formula: если бы + past + бы + past. There is no separate 'past-unreal' versus 'present-unreal' form — context (сейчас, тогда) tells you which. This page covers full unreal conditions, бы on its own (advice, wishes, regrets, polite hedging), and implicit conditions where the если disappears entirely.
- Passive Participles (-емый, -нный, -тый)B2 — Passive participles describe the receiver of an action: present passive (чита́емый, люби́мый — rare, bookish) and the far more important past passive (прочи́танный, напи́санный, постро́енный, откры́тый), which builds both the adjectival passive and the predicate result construction.