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 Passive of Loss and Destruction

In Italian, you usually form the passive voice using the auxiliary verbs *essere* (to be) or *venire* (to come). However, when talking about something being lost, destroyed, or scattered, Italian frequently uses **andare** (to go) as the auxiliary verb.

This special passive structure is formed by conjugating **andare** and adding the past participle of a verb of loss or destruction. It highlights the unfortunate outcome of an event, translating to "got destroyed," "was lost," or "went missing."

The most common past participles used in this structure are:
- **perduto** or **perso** (lost)
- **distrutto** (destroyed)
- **disperso** (missing / scattered)
- **smarrito** (misplaced / lost)

In compound tenses like the *passato prossimo*, remember that **andare** takes **essere** as its own auxiliary. Both the participle of *andare* (like *andato*) and the main past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject.

{{item:853579}}

{{item:853582}}

If the subject is feminine, both participles change to end in **-a**.

{{item:853586}}

### Plural Subjects

When the subject is plural, ensure the auxiliary verb is plural (e.g., *sono* in the *passato prossimo*) and both participles end in the correct plural vowel (**-i** for masculine, **-e** for feminine).

{{item:853596}}

{{item:853597}}

### Using Other Tenses and Moods

Because **andare** acts as the auxiliary verb here, you can conjugate it into any tense or mood to fit the context of the sentence.

For example, use the subjunctive mood (*vada*, *sia andato*) to express purpose, doubt, or subjective feelings about a loss.

{{item:853589}}

{{item:853590}}

You can also use the future perfect (*sarà andato*) to make an assumption or express probability about what must have happened to a wreck or its cargo.

{{item:853591}}

The passive of loss and destruction (andare + past participle)

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (il, la, l')

Indefinite articles (un, una)

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 merchant ship	il mercantile
to sink	affondare
the shipwreck	il naufragio
to get (lost/destroyed)	andare
When the merchant ship sank in the shipwreck, everything was lost.	Quando il mercantile è affondato nel naufragio, tutto è andato perduto.
the cargo	il carico
the spice	la spezia
The cargo of spices got destroyed.	Il carico di spezie è andato distrutto.
the porcelain	la porcellana
to scatter / to lose (to disperse, dissipate)	disperdere
the seabed	il fondale
A lot of porcelain went missing on the seabed.	Molta porcellana è andata dispersa sul fondale.
to recover (to get back, retrieve)	recuperare
the wreck	il relitto
We must recover the wreck so that it does not get destroyed.	Dobbiamo recuperare il relitto affinché non vada distrutto.
Could the merchant ship have gotten lost after the shipwreck?	Che il mercantile sia andato smarrito dopo il naufragio?
They don't find the cargo, it must have gotten destroyed when the ship sank.	Non trovano il carico, sarà andato distrutto quando la nave è affondata.
They recovered the coins from the seabed, but the gold got lost.	Hanno recuperato le monete dal fondale, ma l'oro è andato disperso.
I wanted some information: did the ancient wreck get destroyed?	Volevo un'informazione: il relitto antico è andato distrutto?
The ship's crew went missing in the ocean.	L'equipaggio della nave è andato disperso nell'oceano.
During the shipwreck, the cargo of gold was lost.	Durante il naufragio, il carico d'oro è andato perduto.
The porcelains were destroyed with the merchant ship.	Le porcellane sono andate distrutte con il mercantile.
Unfortunately, all the spices were lost in the seabed.	Purtroppo, tutte le spezie sono andate perdute nel fondale.
The treasure was destroyed during the storm.	Il tesoro è andato distrutto durante la tempesta.

Contributors