Active & passive sentences

Terminology

A verb that has both a subject (“doer”) in the nominative case and a direct object (“done-to”) in the accusative case is called a “transitive” verb. Examples:

Sometimes a verb has both a doer and a done-to, but the done-to is not in the accusative case; that is, the done-to is not a direct object, but a dative object or genitive object or a prepositional object. Such verbs are “intransitive” verbs:

Thus the sentences in sample set 1 are transitive sentences, but the sentences in sample set 2 are not. For the purposes of this discussion, an active sentence is the same thing as a transitive sentence.

Passive sentences

Many active sentences can be rephrased into passive sentences. A passive sentence is one where the done-to is expressed in the nominative case, and the doer (if expressed at all) is in the instrumental case. When the doer is expressed by the instrumental in a passive sentence, we no longer call it the “subject,” but rather the “agent”:

Formation of passive sentences

Perfective verbs

If you have a transitive sentence that uses a perfective verb, that sentence can often be transformed into a passive sentence. To make a perfective transitive sentence passive:

1. Rephrase the old direct object (accusative) as subject (nominative).
2. Replace the transitive verb with a short-form participle.
3. Rephrase the old subject (nominative) as agent (instrumental). Remember that the participle will have to agree with the new subject.
4. If the transitive sentence was in the past tense, you may need to add the past tense of the verb быть to the sentence. If so, it will also have to agree with the subject of the new sentence.
5. If the transitive sentence was in the future tense, you will need to add the future tense of быть. Remember that it will have to agree with the subject of the sentence.

Example:

Here are a set of examples to examine:

Imperfective verbs

Although there is a present passive participle (which is of course imperfective), it is very rarely used in Modern Russian. There are also a few past passive participles that are imperfective, but they are essentially not used in Modern Russian except in stylistically marked artistic literature. Those participles are not normally used to make imperfective passive sentences in modern Russian. In their place, the reflexive form of the imperfective verb is sometimes used in a passive sense.

The use of the reflexive verb for passive meaning is almost entirely restricted to imperfective verbs. To make an imperfective transitive sentence passive:

1. Rephrase the old direct object (accusative) as subject (nominative).
2. Replace the transitive verb with a reflexive verb of the same tense. Remember that the verb will have to agree with the new subject.
3. Rephrase the old subject (nominative) as agent (instrumental).

Example:

Here are a set of examples to examine:

Imperfective passive sentences are subject to an additional restriction that does not apply to perfective passive sentences: generally, an imperfective passive sentence cannot have an animate subject.

Usage of passive sentences

Passive sentences are used when the speaker/writer wished to de-emphasize the agent (“doer”) of the verb. Since the agent is less important, passive sentences often leave out the agent entirely:

Equivalents of passive sentences

Indefinite personal sentences

A passive sentence in English can often be translated into Russian by either a passive sentence or an indefinite personal sentence:

Inverted word order

A passive sentence in English can often be translated into Russian by an active sentence with inverted word order:

Rev. 2:37 PM 2/6/2020