L’imballaggio è stato preparato in ufficio ieri sera.

to be

Breakdown of L’imballaggio è stato preparato in ufficio ieri sera.

• in: in
• preparare: to prepare
• l’ufficio: the office

Questions & Answers about L’imballaggio è stato preparato in ufficio ieri sera.

How is the passive voice formed in the past in Italian, as in è stato preparato?

In Italian the past passive is built with the appropriate tense of essere + past participle. Here:
• è (3rd-person sing. presente of essere)
• stato (past participle of essere used as auxiliary)
• preparato (past participle of preparare)
So è stato preparato literally means “has been prepared” or “was prepared.” Remember that the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject.

Why is l’imballaggio written with l’ instead of lo or il?

Imballaggio is a masculine singular noun beginning with a vowel. The masculine singular article lo contracts to l’ before any vowel (e.g. l’amico, l’ufficio). You never write lo imballaggio; you always use l’imballaggio.

Why do we say in ufficio and not al ufficio or nell’ufficio?

When indicating a general location (like “at the office,” “at school,” “in town”), Italians typically drop the article after a or in:
• in ufficio (“in/at the office”)
• a scuola (“at school”)
Using nell’ufficio is grammatically correct but implies a specific office (“in the director’s office,” etc.) and is less idiomatic when you just mean “at work.”