Like Princess says, it’s passive voice. The meaning is “someone told me (something)”. Since “someone” is semantically light (i.e., it doesn’t tell us any useful information), it’s better to leave it out by using the passive voice, “I was told.” Note that most European languages can only form the passive by using the direct object as the subject: “Something was told to me”, but in English, both ways are possible. (Usually, we want the subject of the sentence to be a person, since we’re anthropocentric (I was tempted to say “homocentric”, but that has an entirely different meaning.)) By the way, Ramin, congratulations on your move to Toronto — a beautiful city, even if the weather is a little harsh for my taste.

I was told = passive voice Passive voice is usually used (I just used it!) when WHO did the action is not known or it unimportant or a secret... Someone told me that you wanted to see me. active voice I was told that you wanted to see me. passive voice (Who told me is unimportant, or I don't want to say who it was) When we are children, we are told that we can do anything we want when we become adults. (who told us this is less important than the fact that we heard this) Children are always being told what to do and what not to do. (Here, it's the passive voice in the present tense). Once again, what the children are told is more important than who told them so the passive voice is used. here's another example of the use of passive voice with another verb: Someone stole my bike! (active voice. I don't know who stole it) becomes 'My bike was stolen!'

We can use it like the passive for example I was told to be at home by my father

It says on your italki profile that you are in Toronto.

What does it mean?