When ½à padu follows the infinitive of another verb, the notion is similar to the English `passive':
As in English, the subject (semantic subject) is in the nominative, with the agent marked by È×Á aale `instrumental'. There is some debate among grammarians as to whether this construction is a `true passive' in the sense of the passive in Indo-European languages. There is some evidence that the construction is somehow borrowed, since it does not occur in most colloquial speech, but is found usually only in more literary usage. If found in spoken Tamil, it represents the influence of the literary dialect.