A second passive, and why Italian bothers
You already know the passive with essere. Its weakness: La porta è chiusa can mean two things, the door is closed as a description of how the door stands, or the door is being closed as something that happens. English repairs this with the progressive: is closed against is being closed.
Italian repairs it with a different auxiliary. La porta viene chiusa alle otto has only one reading: someone closes it. It is an event, never a state. That is the whole job of venire plus participle.
How it sounds
Il giornale viene pubblicato ogni giorno.
The newspaper is published every day.
Le camere vengono pulite la mattina.
The rooms are cleaned in the morning.
La riunione verrà rinviata a lunedì.
The meeting will be postponed to Monday.
The forms — and the hard limit
English lets you passivise in every tense: is published, has been published, had been published. venire only works in simple tenses: viene, veniva, verrà, verrebbe, venga, venne. For the passato prossimo and trapassato prossimo you take essere.
Which auxiliary when
| Tense | with venire | with essere |
|---|---|---|
| Presente | viene pubblicato | è pubblicato |
| Imperfetto | veniva pubblicato | era pubblicato |
| Futuro semplice | verrà pubblicato | sarà pubblicato |
| Passato prossimo | è venuto pubblicato | è stato pubblicato |
| Trapassato prossimo | era venuto pubblicato | era stato pubblicato |
pubblicare – to publish
Switching mid-text
Il romanzo viene tradotto in dieci lingue.
The novel is being translated into ten languages.
Il romanzo è stato tradotto in dieci lingue.
The novel has been translated into ten languages.
La mostra verrà inaugurata sabato.
The exhibition will be opened on Saturday.
venire or essere — what actually changes
In the simple tenses you have a choice, and it changes the meaning. essere leaves it open whether you mean an event or a state; venire commits to the event. A state cannot be expressed with venire at all.
State and event
La porta è aperta.
The door is open.
La porta viene aperta alle nove.
The door gets opened at nine.
Il tavolo è apparecchiato.
The table is set.
Il tavolo viene apparecchiato dai camerieri.
The table is laid by the waiters.
Where venire lives
venire is not a rare flourish. It belongs to the ordinary register of rules, instructions and the news, wherever people report what happens or will happen. It is neutral, not colloquial like English gets done.
Rules, recipes, news
Le domande vengono esaminate in ordine di arrivo.
Applications are examined in order of arrival.
La pasta viene scolata e mescolata subito al sugo.
The pasta is drained and mixed into the sauce straight away.
L'aeroporto verrà ampliato entro il 2030.
The airport will be expanded by 2030.
