Venezia: due delfini nuotano davanti a Piazza San Marco

Forma passiva
Passive form

“Una coppia di delfini è stata avvistata… ”
(A pair of dolphins were spotted)

In the sentence above “Una coppia di delfini è stata avvistata nuotare nel Canal Grande”, the verb “è stata avvistata” is in the passive form.
This means that the subject “coppia di delfini” is not performing the action of being spotted, but rather the action is being done to them by an unspecified agent. The passive voice is often used when the focus is on the action itself, rather than on who or what is performing it.

Here are some other examples of sentences in the passive voice in Italian:

• La mela è stata mangiata da lui. (The apple was eaten by him.)
• La casa è stata costruita quest’anno. (The house was built this year.)
• La lezione sarà seguita da molti studenti. (The lesson will be attended by many students.)

Note that in the passive voice, the verb is formed with the auxiliary “essere” followed by the past participle of the main verb, which agrees in gender and number with the subject.