The subject is usually a noun, pronoun or proper name denoting the person or object performing the action or the event taking place: mia madre ha comprato un tailleur ‘my mother bought a suit’; la festa si svolge a maggio ‘the festival takes place in May’. In the case of a passive construction, the subject is the person or thing affected by the action: gli studenti sono stati criticati dagli insegnanti ‘the students were criticised by their teachers’. With Italian verbs, it is not always essential to have a subject mentioned since it is understood from the verb form, e.g. abbiamo mangiato a mezzogiorno ‘we ate at midday’.