Passive Voice in Russian

Overview

Russian has two main ways to form the passive voice: reflexive verbs with -ся (for imperfective) and short passive participles (for perfective). At the B1 level, understanding passive constructions is important for reading formal texts, understanding news, and expressing actions where the agent is unknown, unimportant, or deliberately de-emphasized.

The reflexive passive (Дом строится = The house is being built) uses the imperfective verb + -ся to express an ongoing or habitual passive action. The participial passive (Дом построен = The house is/has been built) uses the short form of the past passive participle to express a completed result. The agent, when mentioned, goes into the instrumental case.

Russian uses the passive voice less frequently than English, especially in spoken language. Active constructions and impersonal constructions are often preferred. However, passive is common in formal writing, journalism, academic texts, and official documents, making it an important feature of literate Russian.

How It Works

Reflexive Passive (Imperfective)

Imperfective verb + -ся (agent in instrumental)

• Дом строится. (The house is being built.)
• Книга читается легко. (The book reads easily.)
• Дом строился три года. (The house was being built for three years.)

Participial Passive (Perfective)

Short past passive participle (agent in instrumental)

Formation from perfective verbs:

Infinitive	Short Participle	Full form
построить	построен/а/о/ы	построенный
написать	написан/а/о/ы	написанный
открыть	открыт/а/о/ы	открытый
сделать	сделан/а/о/ы	сделанный

Agent Marking

The agent (who performs the action) is expressed with the instrumental case:

• Книга написана Толстым. (The book was written by Tolstoy.)
• Здание было построено архитектором. (The building was built by an architect.)

Examples in Context

Russian	English	Note
Это здание было построено в 1900 году.	This building was built in 1900.	Participial passive
Письмо написано.	The letter is written.	Short participle
Книга читается легко.	The book reads easily.	Reflexive passive
Дом строился три года.	The house was being built for three years.	Imperfective reflexive
Работа сделана.	The work is done.	Short participle
Магазин открыт.	The store is open.	Short participle as state
Эта песня часто поётся.	This song is often sung.	Reflexive passive
Решение было принято.	The decision was made.	Past participial
Здесь говорится о...	Here it is said about...	Reflexive passive
Статья написана учёным.	The article was written by a scientist.	Agent in instrumental

Common Mistakes

Using reflexive passive with perfective verbs

• Wrong: Дом построится. (as passive)
• Right: Дом будет построен. (future passive with participle)
• Why: Reflexive passive is normally used with imperfective verbs. Perfective passive uses participles.

Forgetting gender agreement on short participles

• Wrong: Книга написан. (masculine form with feminine noun)
• Right: Книга написана.
• Why: Short passive participles agree in gender and number with the subject.

Overusing passive in spoken Russian

• Wrong: Using passive where active is more natural: Мной была прочитана книга.
• Right: Я прочитал книгу. (active is more natural in speech)
• Why: Russian spoken language prefers active voice. Reserve passive for formal/written contexts or when the agent is genuinely irrelevant.

Practice Tips

• Practice converting active sentences to passive: Толстой написал эту книгу → Эта книга была написана Толстым.
• Read newspaper headlines and official announcements -- they frequently use passive constructions.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Reflexive Verbs -ся/-сь -- reflexive suffix is one mechanism for forming passives
• Next steps: Passive Participles -- full study of passive participle formation and declension