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Președintele este ales de către cetățeni.

Președintele este ales de către cetățeni.
The president is elected by the citizens.
From Lesson 224:Politics and television (președintele, parlamentul)·Romanian

Questions & Answers about Președintele este ales de către cetățeni.

Why do we use de către here instead of just de for "by"?
In Romanian passive sentences, de către is used to introduce a human agent (the people doing the action, which are the citizens here). You can sometimes use just de, but de către is more precise and strictly used for people, whereas de is mostly used for inanimate causes like natural events.
The translation says "by the citizens", but cetățeni doesn't have the definite article attached. Why isn't it cetățenii?
After the compound preposition de către, nouns are typically used in their bare, unarticulated form (without the definite article attached to the end). This happens even though we translate it with "the" in English.
How does the passive voice work in este ales?
It is formed exactly like in English: the verb a fi (to be) plus the past participle of the main verb, a alege (to choose or elect). Because the participle acts like an adjective in passive sentences, it must agree in gender and number with the subject. Since președintele is masculine singular, we use ales.
If the president were a woman, how would este ales change?
Because the past participle in passive voice must agree with the subject, ales would take the feminine singular form. The phrase would become este aleasă.

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