Professor Dave again, let’s learn the passive pronoun.
When a verb is transitive and a direct object is expressed, despite the fact that the verb
maintains active form, we use the si passivante, which is a variation of the passive construction,
which we will see in detail in a future lesson.
If the direct object is singular, the verb after the “si” goes into singular, and
if it’s plural, it will conjugate into plural.
This construction obviously can’t be used with intransitive verbs.
Let’s look at two similar sentences to highlight the usage of si impersonale versus si passivante.
Both of these sentences use mangiare, and even the same form of the verb, but the addition
of a direct object, in this case pizza, is enough to change the si from si impersonale
into si passivante.
Now let’s notice changes that occur with the verb when using si passivante.
This means the moon is seen in the sky, and in this particular case, “si vede” is
equivalent to “è vista”, a form of the passive voice.
If we change la luna to le stelle, the verb will also change.
Now, stars are seen in the sky, and the verb will have to agree with its subject, which
is now plural.
Let’s look at more examples.
And that’s all you need to know about si impersonale and si passivante.