ABSTRACT
Verbs are said to be in the passive (la forma passiva) when they express an action done to the subject, rather than an action being performed by the subject, e.g. The Mafia shot the judge (active); The judge was shot by the Mafia (passive). The passive form makes the performer of the action less important and the verb becomes more impersonal. This is why the passive is more common in academic or technical and scientific writing than in everyday speech. It is also common in journalism.
