Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

### The Impersonal Passive

In English, a person can easily be the subject of a passive sentence even when they receive the action as an indirect object (e.g., "She was asked a question" or "We were ordered to wait").

In Italian, verbs that take an indirect object (such as *credere a*, *chiedere a*, *ordinare a*, or *concedere a*) **cannot** form a standard personal passive. You cannot literally translate "She was asked" using *lei* as the subject.

Instead, you must use an **impersonal passive** construction, rephrasing the idea as "It was asked to her."

To form this:
- Start with an **indirect object pronoun** (*mi, ti, gli, le, ci, vi, gli*).
- Add the 3rd-person singular of the verb *essere* (most commonly **è stato** in the *passato prossimo*).
- Add the past participle, which is always masculine singular (**-o**).

Because the grammatical subject is an invisible, impersonal "it" (or the action itself), the verb and past participle remain firmly in the 3rd-person singular, no matter who the pronoun refers to.

{{item:855060}}

{{item:855062}}

Even when the indirect object pronoun is plural (like *ci*, "to us"), the verb and participle do not change:

{{item:855064}}

{{item:855065}}

### Rulings and Notifications

This impersonal passive structure is highly common in formal situations, such as official legal proceedings where a judge notifies, grants, or denies something to the parties involved.

{{item:855078}}

{{item:855079}}

Impersonal passive with indirect objects

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Subject pronouns and the verb to be (io sono)

Singular definite articles (il, la)

Singular demonstratives (questo, questa)

Basic verbal negation (non)

Yes/No questions

Coordinating conjunctions (e, ma, o)

Regular plurals and definite articles (-i, -e, i, le)

Plural verb to be (noi siamo, voi siete)

Plural demonstratives (questi, queste)

Nouns ending in -e

Special singular articles (lo, l')

The plural article (gli)

Special indefinite articles (uno, un')

Demonstrative adjectives (quello, quella)

Adjective endings (-o, -a, -i, -e)

Expressing quantity (molto, poco, tanto)

The verb to have (ho, hai, ha...)

There is / there are (c'è, ci sono)

The preposition of (di)

Singular possessives (il mio, la mia)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, due, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (undici, dodici...)

Numbers 21 to 100 (trenta, quaranta...)

Idiomatic avere (avere fame, avere anni)

Plural possessive adjectives (i miei, le mie)

Possessives with family members (mio padre)

Formal address (dare del Lei)

Present tense of -are verbs (-o, -i, -a)

Question words (chi, cosa, dove)

Present tense of -ere verbs (-o, -i, -e)

Question words (quando, come, perché)

Question word agreement (quanto, quanta, quanti, quante)

Regular -ire verbs

Verbs with -isc- (capisco, capisci, capisce)

Pronouns after prepositions (me, te, lui)

The verb fare (faccio, fai, fa)

The verb andare (vado, vai, va)

The verb stare (sto, stai, sta)

The verb venire (vengo, vieni, viene)

The verb uscire (esco, esci, esce)

Location and destination (a, in)

Origin and movement (da)

Articulated prepositions with a (al, alla)

Articulated prepositions with in (nel, nella)

Articulated prepositions with di and da (del, dal)

Simple prepositions (con, per, su, tra)

Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)

Months of the year

Telling time (sono le...)

Dates (il + number)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primo, secondo, terzo...)

The verb to want (volere)

The verb can (potere)

The verb must (dovere)

The verb to know (sapere)

Reflexive verbs (mi lavo, ti lavi)

Indirect object pronouns (gli, le, ci...)

Expressing preferences (mi piace)

Plural preferences (mi piacciono)

Comparatives (più... di, meno... di)

The passato prossimo with avere (ho parlato)

Irregular past participles (fatto, letto, preso)

The passato prossimo with essere (sono andato)

Reflexive verbs in the past (mi sono svegliato)

Time adverbs with the past tense (già, mai, ancora)

Third-person direct object pronouns (lo, la, li, le)

First and second-person direct object pronouns (mi, ti, ci, vi)

The four seasons

Prepositions of place (vicino a, davanti a)

Conversational words (beh, allora, davvero)

Indefinite adjectives for some (qualche, alcuni)

Indefinite adjectives for every and all (ogni, tutti)

Indefinite pronouns (qualcosa, qualcuno)

Noun suffixes (-ino, -one)

Adverbs of manner (-mente)

Comparisons of equality (così... come)

The relative superlative (il più)

The absolute superlative (-issimo)

Irregular comparatives (migliore, peggiore)

Present progressive (stare + -ando, -endo)

Imminent actions (stare per)

The locative pronoun (ci)

The partitive pronoun (ne)

Pronoun placement with modal verbs

Impersonal subjects (si)

Prepositions of time (da, per, tra, fra)

Past participle agreement with pronouns

Question	Answer
the defendant	l'imputato
The defendant denied being guilty.	L'imputato ha negato di essere colpevole.
the hearing	l'udienza
The hearing will start late today.	L'udienza inizierà in ritardo oggi.
the magistrate	il magistrato
The magistrate works in court.	Il magistrato lavora in tribunale.
The magistrate listened to the defendant, but he was not believed.	Il magistrato ha ascoltato l'imputato, ma non gli è stato creduto.
to grant	concedere
She was granted permission to speak during the hearing.	Le è stato concesso di parlare durante l'udienza.
the prison	il carcere
We were ordered to wait in prison.	Ci è stato ordinato di aspettare in carcere.
She was asked to return to court.	Le è stato chiesto di tornare in tribunale.
the appeal	il ricorso
We were advised to file an appeal by the judge.	Ci è stato suggerito di presentare ricorso da parte del giudice.
to sentence	condannare
life imprisonment	l'ergastolo
Although sentenced to life imprisonment, he hopes for freedom.	Pur condannato all'ergastolo, spera nella libertà.
They decided to sentence the defendant to ten years in prison.	Hanno deciso di condannare l'imputato a dieci anni di carcere.
the ruling	la sentenza
The ruling was a disaster for the lawyer.	La sentenza è stata un disastro per l'avvocato.
The judge decided to grant the appeal.	Il giudice ha deciso di accogliere il ricorso.
to notify (formally, officially)	notificare
The lawyer wants to notify the magistrate of the ruling.	L'avvocato vuole notificare la sentenza al magistrato.
Life imprisonment is worse than death.	L'ergastolo è peggiore della morte.
He was notified today in court.	Gli è stato notificato oggi in tribunale.
It was not granted to her by the judge.	Non le è stato concesso dal giudice.