grammar
La voix passive: Shifting the focus of your actions.
In the active voice, the subject performs the action ("Joël wrote the book"). In the passive voice (la voix passive), the target of the action moves to the front of the sentence ("The book was written by Joël"). The mechanics are identical to English, but you must follow a strict agreement rule!
The Core Formula
To put a sentence in the passive voice, you conjugate the verb être into the desired tense, followed by the past participle of the main verb.
Passive Voice Across Tenses
The tense of the passive sentence depends entirely on how you conjugate être. Let's see it in action across the present, past, and future:
Présent (Present):
« Le livre est écrit par Joël. » (The book is written by Joël.)
Passé composé (Past):
« La maison a été construite l'an dernier. » (The house was built last year.)
Futur simple (Future):
« Le match sera transmis à la télévision. » (The match will be broadcast on television.)
Imparfait (Imperfect):
« La boutique était fermée. » (The shop was closed.)
Because the passive voice relies completely on the auxiliary verb être, the past participle behaves like a regular adjective. It must always agree in gender (add -e) and number (add -s) with the new subject at the front of the sentence!
- Le livre (Masc. Sing.) ➔ écrit
- La maison (Fem. Sing.) ➔ construite
- La boutique (Fem. Sing.) ➔ fermée