Mark? = has someone spoken to Mark? (Literally) "Is been spoken to Mark?" Xe stà parlà de ti or Gh'è stà parlà de ti DUMMY has been spoken about you = someone spoke about you (Literally) "Is been spoken about you" or "there is been spoken about you" Likewise, the verb tełefonar "to phone / to ring up" takes a dative indirect object in Venetian (marked by a "to"), still it is often used in the impersonal passive: Xe stà tełefonà a Marco? has DUMMY been phoned Mark? = has someone rung up Mark? (Literally) "Is been phoned to Mark?" Differently from Dutch, the subject can be introduced only with the active voice: Gavìo parlà co Marco? have you spoken to Mark? (Literally) "Have-you (pl.) spoken to Mark?" Latin Impersonal passive constructions are quite common in Latin. While transitive verbs can appear in the impersonal passive, intransitives are much more likely to. One notable example is a phrase from Virgil: Sic itur ad astra. (Aen. 9.641) It is translated "thus one goes to the stars" (i.e. "such is the way to immortality") or "thus you shall go to the stars" but the word itur is the passive form of ire ’to go’ in the third person singular, so its literal meaning could be rendered like "this is how it gets gone to the stars." Similarly, Saltatur is literally the third person singular passive form of the verb saltare ’to dance,’ and it means "they (or: people) are dancing" or more precisely, "it is being danced". Pugnatum est is a perfect passive form of the verb pugnare ’to fight’, so this form means "they (or: people) were fighting" or "there was a fight going on" or even more precisely, "it was fought" or "it has been fought." Another example is the answer to the question Quid agitur? (approx. "what's up?", lit. "what is being done?") in a play by Plautus: Vivitur, approx. "not too bad", literally: "one is alive" or more precisely, "it is being lived", from the impersonal (intransitive) verb vivere (’to live’). Slavic Slavic languages have the impersonal passive, formed with the reflexive particle (the examples below are in Serbian): Pleše se. There's dancing. (Literally) "It's danced." The verb is in the third person singular (compare with Latin saltatur) As with other impersonal forms, the past tense forms are in neuter singular: Plesalo se. There was dancing. (Literally) "It