"Passive" sentences can be understood best by contrasting them with "active" sentences. Let's take a look at the following two sentences:

María rompió el vaso.
Mary broke the glass. (active)

El vaso fue rompió por María.
The glass was broken by Mary. (passive)

In the first sentence, Mary is the subject. She is the one who does the breaking, the action which is expressed by the verb. In the second sentence, the glass is the subject, but the glass doesn't do the breaking. Let's look at more examples:

El General castigó al soldado.
The General punished the soldier. (active)

El soldado fue castigado por el General.
The soldier was punished by the General. (passive)

Juan rompió las ventanas.
John broke the windows. (active)

Las ventanas fueron rotas por Juan.
The windows were broken by John. (passive)

The Sentence Flashcards and Videos to the right provide many examples of how the passive voice is used.

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