The Instrumental of Agent in Passives | Ukrainian Grammar

When an English sentence says a book was written by the author, the agent rides in on the preposition "by." Ukrainian has no such preposition for this job. Instead, the passive agent — the one who actually did the deed — appears in the bare instrumental: рома́н, напи́саний *Шевче́нком* "a novel written by Shevchenko." There is no word for "by"; the case ending does the work. This is a clean, almost mechanical rule, but it has two complications worth a whole page. First, that same bare instrumental also marks the instrument/means ("written with a pen"), so one case form covers two different roles. Second, Ukrainian's native passives — the -но/-то impersonal and the -ся reflexive — usually have no expressed agent at all, which means the named "by X" agent shows up mainly in the one passive that tolerates it: the -ний participle.

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The core rule: the passive AGENT ("by X") is the bare instrumental, never a preposition. "Written by the author" = напи́саний а́втором — а́втором alone is "by the author."

The agent instrumental with a passive participle

The natural home for a named agent is the passive past participle in -ний / -тий (напи́саний, збудо́ваний, відкри́тий — see passive past participles). The participle agrees with the noun it describes in gender, number and case; the agent that performed the action stands in the instrumental, with no preposition.

Passive phrase	Agent (instrumental)	English
кни́га, напи́сана…	а́втором	a book written by the author
рома́н, напи́саний…	Шевче́нком	a novel written by Shevchenko
буди́нок, збудо́ваний…	робітника́ми	a building built by the workers
карти́на, намальо́вана…	худо́жницею	a painting painted by the artist (f.)

Це рома́н, напи́саний Шевче́нком, — оди́н із найвідо́міших украї́нських тво́рів.

This is a novel written by Shevchenko — one of the most famous Ukrainian works.

Буди́нок, збудо́ваний робітника́ми ще до війни́, стої́ть і до́сі.

The building, built by the workers before the war, still stands today.

Карти́на, намальо́вана відо́мою худо́жницею, ви́сить тепе́р у Націона́льному музе́ї.

The painting, painted by a famous artist, now hangs in the National Museum.

Notice there is no preposition anywhere near the agent. English speakers reach for "by" and want to translate it as a word; in Ukrainian "by the author" is simply а́втором, the instrumental of а́втор. The case ending fully replaces "by."

Agent versus means: one case, two roles

Here is the subtlety. The bare instrumental also marks the instrument / means — the thing used to perform an action ("written with a pen," "cut with a knife"). So the same case form, with no preposition, can answer two different questions: ким? "by whom?" (agent) and чим? "with what?" (means). The difference is not in the ending but in the role: an agent is the doer, a means is the tool.

Role	Question	Example	Gloss
Agent (the doer)	ким? "by whom?"	напи́саний а́втором	written by the author
Means (the tool)	чим? "with what?"	напи́сано ру́чкою	written with a pen

Лист, напи́саний секретаре́м, лежа́в на столі́.

The letter, written by the secretary, lay on the table. (agent — ким?: by the secretary)

Лист було́ напи́сано си́ньою ру́чкою, а не олівце́м.

The letter was written with a blue pen, not a pencil. (means — чим?: with a pen)

Both а́втором/секретаре́м and ру́чкою/олівце́м sit in the bare instrumental, but the first names who did it and the second names what it was done with. They can even co-occur in one clause: лист, напи́саний *секретаре́м (agent) ру́чкою (means)* — "a letter written by the secretary with a pen." The agent is the core instrumental used as a doer; the means is the older "by means of" instrumental.

Цей докуме́нт, підпи́саний дире́ктором си́нім чорни́лом, треба́ заархівува́ти.

This document, signed by the director in blue ink, needs to be archived. (agent: дире́ктором; means: чорни́лом)

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Disambiguate by question: ask ким? ("by whom?") for the agent and чим? ("with what?") for the means. A person who did the action is the agent; an object used to do it is the means — same instrumental ending, different job.

Why the agent lives mostly with -ний: the other passives drop it

Ukrainian has three passive routes (the full map is on the passive overview), and they treat the agent very differently — which is why the named "by X" instrumental clusters around the -ний participle.

1. The -но/-то impersonal is agentless. The hallmark Ukrainian passive Кни́гу напи́сано "the book has been written" is subjectless and agentless by design — it deliberately omits the doer. You normally cannot bolt a named agent onto it: Кни́гу напи́сано Шевче́нком is at best marginal and usually avoided. If you want to name the author, you switch to the -ний participle (рома́н, напи́саний Шевче́нком) or recast the sentence as active (Шевче́нко написа́в рома́н). The -но/-то form is for when the doer is irrelevant or unknown — see the -но/-то impersonal.

Цю кни́гу напи́сано ще в дев’ятна́дцятому столі́тті — а́втор невідо́мий.

This book was written back in the nineteenth century — the author is unknown. (agentless -но form)

2. The -ся passive usually suppresses the agent too. The reflexive passive (Буди́нок буду́ється "the building is being built") is overwhelmingly used without an agent — the focus is on the process, not the doer. A named agent in the instrumental is grammatically possible (буду́ється робітника́ми), but it sounds heavy and bureaucratic, and natives prefer either the agentless -ся form or an active recasting. More on this on the reflexive passive page.

Но́вий міст буду́ється вже два ро́ки — відкриття́ обіця́ють навесні́.

The new bridge has been under construction for two years now — they're promising the opening in spring. (-ся passive, no agent)

So the practical takeaway: when you genuinely need to name who did it in a passive, reach for the -ний participle plus the instrumental agent — that is the construction built to carry an agent. The other two native passives are agent-shy.

A note on the means instrumental beyond passives

The means instrumental is not limited to passives — it is everywhere in the active voice too: писа́ти ру́чкою "to write with a pen," рі́зати ноже́м "to cut with a knife," ї́хати авто́бусом "to go by bus." Recognising it is what keeps you from mistaking every bare instrumental for an agent. In an active sentence there is no agent slot at all — the doer is the nominative subject — so any bare instrumental there is necessarily a means (or a route, or a time adverbial). The agent reading is available only inside a passive.

Я підписа́в уго́ду ру́чкою, яку́ мені́ подарува́ла сестра́.

I signed the agreement with the pen my sister gave me. (active — ру́чкою is means, not agent)

Source-language comparison

For an English speaker, the single thing to unlearn is the word "by." English glues the agent to the sentence with a preposition — "written by Shevchenko" — and you will instinctively look for a Ukrainian "by." There isn't one for the passive agent: it is the bare instrumental, Шевче́нком. Worse, the same bare instrumental also renders English "with (a tool)" — "written with a pen" = ру́чкою — so two different English prepositions ("by" the doer, "with" the tool) both collapse onto one prepositionless instrumental. Tell them apart by role, not by form. And remember that the natural Ukrainian passive (-но/-то, -ся) usually has no agent at all, so most of the time the English "by X" simply triggers a recast into the active voice.

For a Russian speaker, the agent-instrumental is structurally identical (напи́санный а́втором ≈ напи́саний а́втором), so the rule transfers; the differences are in the forms (Ukrainian participles in -ний/-тий and their endings) and, crucially, in usage frequency — Ukrainian leans far more on the native -но/-то agentless passive than Russian does, so the named-agent instrumental is comparatively rarer in idiomatic Ukrainian. Prefer the -но/-то form (Кни́гу напи́сано) or an active recast over a calqued agentful passive.

Common Mistakes

❌ рома́н, напи́саний від Шевче́нка

No preposition for the agent — it's the bare instrumental: рома́н, напи́саний Шевче́нком.

✅ рома́н, напи́саний Шевче́нком

a novel written by Shevchenko — bare instrumental agent.

❌ кни́га, напи́сана а́втор

The agent must be in the instrumental, not the nominative: кни́га, напи́сана а́втором.

✅ кни́га, напи́сана а́втором

a book written by the author — instrumental agent.

❌ Кни́гу напи́сано Шевче́нком.

The -но form is agentless — name the author with the -ний participle instead: Це рома́н, напи́саний Шевче́нком (or active: Шевче́нко написа́в рома́н).

✅ Це рома́н, напи́саний Шевче́нком.

This is a novel written by Shevchenko — agent carried by the -ний participle.

❌ Я підписа́в уго́ду секретаре́м.

In an active clause a bare instrumental reads as means/instrument, so 'by the secretary' makes no sense — recast as passive: уго́да, підпи́сана секретаре́м, or active with секрета́р as subject.

✅ Уго́да, підпи́сана секретаре́м.

an agreement signed by the secretary — agent only inside a passive.

Key Takeaways

The passive agent ("by X") is the bare instrumental — no preposition: напи́саний а́втором, збудо́ваний робітника́ми.
The same bare instrumental marks the means/instrument ("with a pen" = ру́чкою); tell them apart by role — ким? (agent, the doer) vs чим? (means, the tool).
The native -но/-то passive is agentless, and the -ся passive usually drops the agent — so a named agent appears mostly with the -ний participle.
To name a doer in a passive, use the -ний participle + instrumental, or recast the sentence as active.
In an active clause a bare instrumental is never an agent (the doer is the nominative subject) — it is means, route, or time.

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