The Passive Voice & Agent Marking in Romanian

In Romanian, the *Passive Voice (Diateza Pasivă)* promotes the patient of the action to the grammatical subject of the clause.

1. Structural Formula: Auxiliary 'a fi' (conjugated in any tense) + Past Participle (Participiu Agreement)

Mandatory Gender and Number Agreement: Unlike the active Perfect Compus where the participle is invariable, in the passive voice the past participle acts like an adjective and must obligatorily agree in gender and number with the subject: - Masc. sg.: Romanul este citit (The novel is read) - Fem. sg.: Cartea este citită* (The book is read) - Masc. pl.: Romanele sunt citite (Neuter pl.) / Băieții sunt lăudați - Fem. pl.: Cărțile sunt citite* (The books are read).

*2. Marking the Agent (Agentul Acțiunii): - When the agent performing the action is animate/personal, it is introduced by the compound preposition de către (by): - Cartea a fost scrisă de către un autor renumit (The book was written by a renowned author). - Proiectul este coordonat de către profesorul nostru (The project is coordinated by our professor). - When the cause/agent is inanimate or abstract, simple de is used: podul distrus de furtună* (the bridge destroyed by the storm).

*Reflexive Passive (Pasivul reflexiv): As an alternative to a fi, Romanian frequently uses the 3rd person reflexive se: Aici se vorbește românește* (Romanian is spoken here).