Imagine that I am reading a book. In English I would say: "I am reading the book". But, if you asked the book what was happening, and, if the book could talk, what would the book say. It would probably say: "I am being read." Or, it might say: "I am being read by an old guy with dreadlocks wearing a top hat!"

If I was walking a dog. I would say: "I am walking the dog". But what would the dog say? It would say: "I am being walked." (Or it might just say: "Ruff ruff!")

And, if a person washing the dishes, they would say: "I am washing the dishes" or we might say: "That person is washing the dishes". But if dishes could talk, and you asked them what was happening, what would they say? They would probably say: "We are being washed".

Now these sentences, from the point of view of the book, the dog, or the dishes, are passive sentences: the book is being read, the dog is being walked and the dishes are being washed. These, in English. are all passive sentences.

We don't often use passive sentences in English. We say: "I am drinking a cup of tea", we don't say: "the cup of tea is being drunk by me". We could say that, but it would sound weird.

The place we most often encounter passive sentences is in the newspapers when reading about crimes and the court system. We might read that a shop was robbed, a man was arrested by the police, he was sentenced to a month in prison by the judge.

The thief would probably say what happened in the way any of us would: I robbed a store. The police arrested me. The judge sent me to prison for a month. These are all active sentences, and the kind of sentences we are used to in English. But in a newspaper, more than likely, they are written in the passive: was robbed, was arrested, was sentenced.

And this is important in te reo Māori, because these kind of passive sentences are very common - much more common than in English.