The Dynamic Passive with "Venire"
While essere is the standard auxiliary verb for the passive voice, Italian frequently uses venire (to come) in simple tenses (like the present).
Use venire to emphasize the action or process taking place, rather than a resulting state. This is known as the dynamic passive, and it is especially common when describing how things are made, distributed, or organized.
To form it, conjugate venire and add the past participle of the main verb. The past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject.
| A lot of merchandise is produced in this factory. | Molta merce viene prodotta in questa fabbrica. |
Notice how prodotta ends in -a to match the feminine singular merce. If the subject is masculine singular, the participle ends in -o:
| The material is assembled in the warehouse. | Il materiale viene assemblato nel magazzino. |
Plurals in the Dynamic Passive
When the subject is plural, conjugate venire accordingly and change the past participle ending to match (-i for masculine plural, -e for feminine plural).
| How are the cars assembled in this process? | Come vengono assemblate le macchine in questo processo? |
Negation and the Agent
To make a dynamic passive sentence negative, simply place non right before the conjugated form of venire.
| These materials are not transported by truck. | Questi materiali non vengono trasportati in camion. |
To specify who or what is performing the action (the agent), use the preposition da (often combined with a definite article).
| These goods are produced by the Italian industry. | Queste merci vengono prodotte dall'industria italiana. |