Language/French/Grammar/Active-Voice-and-Passive-Voice
How to form the Active and Passive Voice in French[edit | edit source]
→ The active voice presents the subject as the agent of the action.
Example:
- Nos amis construisent une maison.
Our friends are building a house.
→ By reversal, the passive voice presents the subject as an agent undergoing the action.
Example:
- Une maison est construite par nos amis.
A house is built by our friends.
→ Passive transformation is only possible with verbs which accept a indirect object complement (transitive verbs).
It cannot be used in the passive voice when:
→ The verb of the sentence does not admit an additional object.
It is an intransitive verb (tomber, courir, rire, nager...) (to fall, run, laugh, swim ...)
→ The verb of the sentence must be constructed with an indirect object complement (parler de, penser à, croire en...) (talking about, thinking about, believing in ...)
Example:
- Pierre pensait à son inscription à la faculté de médecine.
Pierre was thinking about his enrollment in the faculty of medicine.
This sentence cannot be transformed in the passive voice.
The verb in the passive voice consists of two parts:
- The auxiliary "être", which is combined according to the mode, the time, the person and the number.
- The past participle of the verb, which indicates the action.
Conjugation Active and Passive Voice: Aimer (to love)[edit | edit source]
ACTIVE VOICE (voix active) | PASSIVE VOICE (voix passive) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Tenses | French | Translation | French | Translation |
Present (le présent) | J'aime | I love | Je suis aimé(e) | I am loved |
Imperfect (l'imparfait) | J'aimais | I loved | J'étais aimé(e) | I was loved |
Future (le futur) | J'aimerai | I would love | Je serai aimé(e) | I will be loved |
Perfect (le passé composé) | J'ai aimé | I have loved | J'ai été aimé(e) | I was loved |
Conditional (le conditionnel) | J'aimerais | I would love | Je serais aimé(e) | I would be loved |
Past conditional (le conditionnel passé) | J'aurais aimé | I would have loved | J'aurais été aimé(e) | I would have been loved |
Imperative (l'impératif) | aime ! | love! | Sois aimé(e) | Be loved |
Video - Active versus Passive voices in French[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- The plural of compound nouns
- Measurements and comparisons Numbers with length, height, depth etc
- Ordinal numbers as fractions
- Polite Form
- tard versus en retard
- How to use Have
- Number differences between French and English nouns
- Common quantifiers
- Use of ce, cela, ça as neutral pronouns
- Auxiliaries
- How to use « il y a » in French
- Non specific use of y
- Intransitive verbs and auxiliary “être”
- Non agreement of direct object numerals with coûter, peser and mesurer
- Ambiguity of reference of lui and leur