Word
La riforma è stata approvata da parte del governo.
Meaning
The reform was approved by the government.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of La riforma è stata approvata da parte del governo.
essere
to be
approvare
to approve
la riforma
the reform
da parte di
by (institutional or formal agent)
Questions & Answers about La riforma è stata approvata da parte del governo.
Why does this sentence use da parte del instead of just dal to say "by the"?
In Italian passive sentences, you normally use da (or its combined forms like dal) to introduce the agent (the person or thing doing the action). However, when the agent is an institution, a collective group, or an official body—like il governo (the government)—it is very common to use da parte di. Here, da parte di + il combines to form da parte del.
Would it be incorrect to say La riforma è stata approvata dal governo?
Why do we say è stata approvata with feminine endings?
Because this sentence is in the passive voice. In a passive construction, the auxiliary verb is always essere (here conjugated in the past tense as è stata), and the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. Since the subject la riforma is feminine singular, the verbs become stata and approvata.
If I flip this to the active voice ("The government approved the reform"), do I still use essere?