The passive agent

The Passive Agent

In the previous lesson, you learned how to use passive verbs to focus on the object receiving an action (e.g., "The text is being edited"). But what if you want to mention who is doing the editing?

In English, we express this with the word "by" ("edited by the author"). In Russian, there is no preposition used. Instead, the person or entity performing the action—the agent—is put into the instrumental case.

Forming the Agent

To add an agent to a passive sentence, simply place the noun (and any modifiers) into the instrumental case. The grammatical subject of the sentence remains in the nominative case.

For masculine and neuter nouns, this usually means adding -ом or -ем.

Works with Any Passive Construction

You can use the instrumental case to indicate the agent alongside any passive construction. This includes the present-tense -ся verbs you already know, as well as short-form passive participles (like "written").

Multiple Subjects and Agents

Sentences can have multiple subjects receiving the action, or multiple agents performing it. Simply ensure that all agents take the instrumental case. Because Russian relies on cases rather than strict word order to show who is doing what, the endings make the meaning perfectly clear.