Language/French/Grammar/Pronominal-verbs-used-as-passives

Pronominal verbs used as passives

Definitions

Pronominal Verbs

Pronominal verbs ("Les verbes pronominaux" in French), of which there are several categories, are verbs that are constructed with a reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nous, vous) of the same person as the subject.

This pronoun is always placed before the verb.

Active Voice and Passive Voice

→ 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:

1. The auxiliary "être", which is combined according to the mode, the time, the person and the number.
2. The past participle of the verb, which indicates the action.

Voix active			Voix passive
	French	English	French	English
Present	J'aime	I love	Je suis aimé (e)	I am loved
Imperfect	J'aimais	I loved	J'étais aimé (e)	I was loved
Future	J'aimerai	I would love	Je serai aimé (e)	I will be loved
Perfect	J'ai aimé	I have loved	J'ai été aimé (e)	I was loved
Conditional	J'aimerais	I would love	Je serais aimé (e)	I would be loved
Past conditional	J'aurais aimé	I would have loved	J'aurais été aimé (e)	I would have been loved
Imperative	aime !	love!	Sois aimé (e)	Be loved

Pronominal verbs used as passives

Pronominal verbs are increasingly used with a meaning equivalent to an English passive:

• Les jeux électroniques se vendent comme des petits pains

Computer games are selling like hot cakes

• Ces verbes se conjugent avec 'être'

These verbs are conjugated with 'être'

• Le français se parle au Canada et en Afrique

Trench is spoken in Canada and in Africa

• Les baskets s'achètent dans les magasins de sport

Trainers can be bought in sports shops

• Les valeurs se maintiennent à la Bourse

Stocks and shares are holding up on the Stock Exchange

• Cela ne se fait pas

That is just not done

• Ce vin se boit chambré

This wine is drunk at room temperature

• La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid

Revenge is a meal to be eaten cold

• C'est une revue qui se lit facilement

This journal is easy to read

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds