Passive Voice in Romanian

In Brief

Romanian commonly expresses the passive in two ways: a fi (“to be”) + a past participle, as in Casa a fost construită (“The house was built”), or se + a third-person verb, as in Se vând bilete (“Tickets are sold”). With a fi, the participle agrees with the passive subject; with passive se, the verb normally agrees with the noun that undergoes the action. An agent can be added to the a fi passive with de or, especially for a clearly identified doer, de către.

Overview

The passive voice presents an action from the viewpoint of the person or thing affected by it. Compare Arhitectul a proiectat casa (“The architect designed the house”) with Casa a fost proiectată de arhitect (“The house was designed by the architect”). In the active sentence, arhitectul performs the action. In the passive sentence, casa is the subject (the person or thing that the sentence says something about), even though it receives the action.

This is introduced as a B1 topic because it builds naturally on the compound past and on the past participle (a verb form such as scris, “written,” or văzut, “seen”). The passive is especially useful when the doer is unknown, obvious, unimportant, or deliberately left unnamed. It is frequent in news, reports, rules, historical descriptions, product information, and notices.

English speakers will recognize the basic “be + participle” pattern. The important difference is agreement: Romanian participles in this construction change for the subject’s gender and number. Romanian also relies heavily on se, often where natural English uses a passive, “people,” “they,” or an impersonal “you.”

How It Works

From active to passive

A straightforward passive transformation has three steps:

1. The active direct object (the person or thing directly affected) becomes the passive subject.
2. The verb becomes the appropriate form of a fi + past participle.
3. The original subject may be omitted or placed after de or de către.

Romanian	English	Note
Profesorul corectează exercițiul.	The teacher corrects the exercise.	Active: profesorul performs the action.
Exercițiul este corectat de profesor.	The exercise is corrected by the teacher.	Passive: exercițiul receives the action.
Profesorul corectează exercițiile.	The teacher corrects the exercises.	Active plural object.
Exercițiile sunt corectate de profesor.	The exercises are corrected by the teacher.	Passive plural subject and plural participle.

Only verbs that can take a direct object normally allow this transformation. For example, Maria citește cartea can become Cartea este citită de Maria. A verb such as a veni (“to come”) has no direct object, so it does not form this kind of passive.

The a fi passive

The formula is:

passive subject + a fi in the required tense + agreeing past participle (+ agent)

The tense is carried by a fi. The participle expresses the action and agrees with the subject much like an adjective does.

Romanian	English	Note
Scrisoarea este trimisă astăzi.	The letter is sent today.	Present: este + feminine singular trimisă.
Scrisoarea a fost trimisă ieri.	The letter was sent yesterday.	Compound past: a fost + trimisă.
Scrisoarea va fi trimisă mâine.	The letter will be sent tomorrow.	Future: va fi + trimisă.
Este posibil ca scrisoarea să fie trimisă azi.	The letter may be sent today.	Subjunctive: să fie + trimisă.
Scrisoarea ar fi trimisă imediat.	The letter would be sent immediately.	Conditional: ar fi + trimisă.

In the compound past, a fi itself uses a avea as its auxiliary: am fost, ai fost, a fost, am fost, ați fost, au fost. Do not replace this with the active compound-past pattern. Compare Ea a scris raportul (“She wrote the report”) with Raportul a fost scris (“The report was written”).

Agreement of the participle

The passive participle agrees with the subject in gender (the noun class conventionally called masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). Many participles follow the pattern below, although their base form may be irregular.

Subject	Form of scris	Example	English
masculine singular	scris	Raportul este scris.	The report is written.
feminine singular	scrisă	Cartea este scrisă.	The book is written.
masculine plural	scriși	Autorii sunt descriși.	The authors are described.
feminine or neuter plural	scrise	Cărțile sunt scrise.	The books are written.

Romanian neuter nouns behave as masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural: Mesajul a fost trimis (“The message was sent”), but Mesajele au fost trimise (“The messages were sent”). A mixed group containing at least one masculine referent normally takes the masculine plural: Ana și Mihai au fost invitați (“Ana and Mihai were invited”).

The participle must be learned with any irregular stem: scris from a scrie, văzut from a vedea, făcut from a face, and spus from a spune. Once the masculine singular is known, the agreement endings are generally added in the usual way.

The agent: de and de către

The agent is the person, group, or force that performs the action in a passive sentence. Romanian can introduce it with de or de către:

• Romanul a fost scris de Rebreanu. — “The novel was written by Rebreanu.”
• Cererea a fost aprobată de către comisie. — “The request was approved by the committee.”

De is shorter and very common. De către unmistakably marks an agent and is particularly useful with people, institutions, or formal administrative wording. It is not obligatory merely because the sentence is formal. If the doer adds no useful information, Romanian normally leaves the entire agent phrase out: Cererea a fost aprobată.

After de or de către, a pronoun uses its stressed form: de mine (“by me”), de tine, de el/ea, de noi, de voi, de ei/ele. For example: Textul a fost tradus de mine (“The text was translated by me”).

The passive with se

Romanian also uses se with a third-person active-form verb to describe an action without naming its performer:

• Se vinde apartamentul. — “The apartment is for sale / is being sold.”
• Se vând apartamente. — “Apartments are for sale / are being sold.”

In this reflexive passive, se does not mean that the noun literally acts on itself. The noun affected by the action functions grammatically as the subject, so the verb normally agrees with it: singular se vinde, plural se vând; singular se caută un voluntar, plural se caută voluntari.

The se construction is especially natural in notices, instructions, advertisements, recipes, and general statements. Its tense can change: Se construiește un pod (“A bridge is being built”), S-au construit două poduri (“Two bridges were built”), Se vor construi două poduri (“Two bridges will be built”). In a compound tense, se becomes s- before a vowel, and the auxiliary agrees with the subject: s-a construit but s-au construit.

Unlike the a fi passive, passive se does not naturally take an expressed agent. If the doer matters, prefer Podul a fost construit de companie, not a hybrid such as Podul se construiește de companie.

Choosing between the two patterns

Romanian	English	Best fit
Contractul a fost semnat de director.	The contract was signed by the director.	a fi: the named agent matters.
Contractul a fost semnat ieri.	The contract was signed yesterday.	a fi: a completed event is presented directly.
Aici se semnează contractele.	Contracts are signed here.	se: general procedure or customary action.
Se închiriază camere.	Rooms for rent.	se: concise advertisement or notice.

These are tendencies, not absolute rules. Both patterns can sometimes describe the same event, but the framing differs. A fi gives a clear passive event and readily allows an agent. Se usually presents what happens in general or what is available, required, permitted, or currently done, while keeping the performer outside the picture.

Examples in Context

Romanian	English	Note
Este văzut de toți.	He is seen by everyone.	Present a fi passive; masculine singular is understood.
A fost scris de el.	It was written by him.	Compound-past passive with an agent pronoun.
Casa a fost construită în 1900.	The house was built in 1900.	Feminine singular agreement.
Rezultatele vor fi anunțate mâine.	The results will be announced tomorrow.	Future passive; neuter plural takes anunțate.
Ana și Mihai au fost invitați la nuntă.	Ana and Mihai were invited to the wedding.	Masculine plural for a mixed group.
Ușa trebuie să fie închisă la ora zece.	The door must be closed at ten.	Modal verb followed by să fie + participle.
Proiectul a fost aprobat de către consiliu.	The project was approved by the council.	Clearly marked institutional agent.
Aceste documente sunt verificate zilnic.	These documents are checked daily.	Repeated action in the present.
Se vinde bine.	It sells well.	Se construction; the item is understood from context.
Se vând bilete la intrare.	Tickets are sold at the entrance.	Plural verb agrees with bilete.
În România se vorbește română.	Romanian is spoken in Romania.	General statement with singular română.
S-au construit două școli noi.	Two new schools were built.	Past se passive; plural s-au.
Nu se acceptă plata în numerar.	Cash payment is not accepted.	Rule or policy.
Se caută voluntari pentru festival.	Volunteers are wanted for the festival.	Typical notice.
Problema poate fi rezolvată ușor.	The problem can be solved easily.	Modal + passive infinitive fi + participle.

Common Mistakes

Leaving the participle unchanged

• Wrong: Cartea a fost scris de Ana.
• Right: Cartea a fost scrisă de Ana.
• Why: Cartea is feminine singular, so scris must become scrisă. English participles do not show this agreement, which makes the error easy for English speakers to miss.

Using the active compound past instead of the passive

• Wrong: Raportul a scris ieri.
• Right: Raportul a fost scris ieri.
• Why: A scris means “he/she wrote.” A past passive needs the compound-past form of a fi plus the participle: a fost scris.

Forgetting verb agreement with passive se

• Wrong: Se vinde bilete aici.
• Right: Se vând bilete aici.
• Why: In the standard passive analysis, plural bilete is the subject, so the verb is plural. In the past, the same contrast is s-a vândut un bilet versus s-au vândut bilete.

Combining se with a regular agent phrase

• Wrong: Podul s-a construit de către firmă.
• Right: Podul a fost construit de către firmă.
• Why: Passive se normally suppresses the agent. Use the a fi passive when you want to identify who performed the action.

Translating every English passive literally

• Awkward: O greșeală a fost făcută de mine.
• More natural in ordinary conversation: Am făcut o greșeală.
• Why: The first sentence is grammatical, but Romanian often prefers a direct active sentence when the doer is known and there is no reason to shift focus. English institutional habits can lead learners to overuse “be + participle.”

Confusing an action with a resulting state

• Potentially unclear: Ușa este închisă.
• Clear event: Ușa este închisă de portar în fiecare seară.
• Clear state: Ușa e închisă acum.
• Why: A fi + participle can describe either an action (“is closed by the caretaker”) or a state (“is closed”). Context, an agent, a time expression, or an adverb usually resolves the meaning.

Usage Notes

The a fi passive is common in formal and informational styles because it lets the writer foreground a result: Decizia a fost publicată în Monitorul Oficial (“The decision was published in the Official Gazette”). However, Romanian, like English, can sound vague or bureaucratic if too many passives hide responsibility. When the doer is important, name it or use an active sentence.

The se pattern is highly idiomatic in public-facing language: Nu se fumează (“No smoking”), Se acceptă carduri (“Cards accepted”), Se închiriază apartament (“Apartment for rent”). English translations vary because English does not use one single structure in all these contexts. Do not assume that every Romanian se must be translated with “itself.”

Word order can shift according to what is already known and what is new. Both Biletele se vând online and Se vând bilete online are natural. The first starts from particular tickets already under discussion; the second introduces the availability of tickets. In neutral se notices, placing the verb first is especially common.

A present passive may describe a repeated procedure, an event in progress, or a state, depending on context: Documentele sunt verificate în fiecare dimineață is habitual, while Documentele sunt verificate acum can mean they are being checked now. Romanian does not need a direct equivalent of the English progressive passive “are being checked.”

Beyond the Basics: Meaning and Style

Event passive versus adjectival result

A participle after a fi may function almost like an adjective and describe the result of an earlier action. Magazinul este închis most naturally means “The shop is closed,” a present state. Add an agent or a repeated-time phrase and the event reading becomes stronger: Magazinul este închis de angajat la ora nouă (“The shop is closed by the employee at nine”).

This distinction explains why the English translation may use either “is closed” or “has been closed,” even when Romanian has este închis. Rather than matching auxiliary forms mechanically, ask whether the Romanian sentence presents an action, its result, or a general condition.

Passive forms inside larger verb constructions

The passive can follow verbs and expressions that require an infinitive or the subjunctive:

• Problema poate fi rezolvată. — “The problem can be solved.”
• Raportul trebuie să fie terminat azi. — “The report must be finished today.”
• Vreau ca informația să fie verificată. — “I want the information to be checked.”
• Ar fi fost mai bine să fim anunțați. — “It would have been better for us to be informed.”

Agreement still applies even when several verbs come before the participle: informația ... verificată, noi ... anunțați.

Passive se and impersonal se

Not every sentence with se has a passive subject. Compare:

• Se vând cărți. — “Books are sold.” Here cărți is a plural subject, and the verb agrees with it.
• Se lucrează mult aici. — “People work a lot here / A lot of work is done here.” The verb a lucra is used without a direct object, so there is no noun that can become a passive subject. This is impersonal se, a construction that leaves the human actor unspecified.
• Se vorbește despre proiect. — “People are talking about the project.” Despre proiect is a prepositional phrase, not a passive subject, so the verb remains singular.

The practical test is to look for a noun directly affected by a transitive verb. If that noun is present as a grammatical subject, the verb agrees with it. If the sentence merely means “people/one do(es) something,” third-person singular is usual.

Keeping information in a natural order

Writers often choose the passive not to avoid the agent, but to connect sentences smoothly. If one sentence already discusses proiectul, the next can continue with Proiectul a fost aprobat de consiliu rather than switching abruptly to Consiliul a aprobat proiectul. This is a matter of information flow: begin with the topic already in the reader’s mind, then add the new information.

Practice Tips

1. Transform complete pairs. Take five active sentences with direct objects and rewrite them in the present, past, and future passive. Mark the new subject, circle the form of a fi, and check the participle ending: Comisia aprobă cererea → Cererea este/a fost/va fi aprobată.
2. Drill agreement in four forms. Use one participle with masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine or neuter plural nouns: invitat, invitată, invitați, invitate. This targets the feature that differs most from English.
3. Collect real examples by function. Make two lists while reading Romanian: a fi passives from news and reports, and se forms from signs, advertisements, and instructions. For each se example, decide whether it is passive (Se vând cărți) or impersonal (Se lucrează).

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Compound Past Tense — provides the compound-past pattern needed to understand forms such as a fost and au fost.