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Voix passive
As seen in this sentence, the passive voice is used to indicate that something is being done to a subject by an agent. It’s passive because the subject is being acted upon, rather than acting as in the active voice. The agent may be implied or introduced by one of two prepositions.
1) Active verbs
The agent of active verbs is introduced by the preposition par.
Par exemple…
| La poule est suivie par ses poussins. | The chicken is followed by her chicks. | |
| Ce film a été tourné en France (par un étudiant). | This movie was filmed in France (by a student). |
2) Descriptive verbs
When the verb describes something like a feeling or opinion, the agent—if any—is introduced by the preposition de.
Par exemple…
| Ce professeur est détesté de ses collègues. | This teacher is hated by his colleagues. | |
| La décision est très appréciée (de tout le monde). | The decision is greatly appreciated (by everyone). |
À noter
Only transitive verbs (verbs with direct objects) can be used in the passive voice. Just as the subject of an active sentence becomes the agent, the direct object becomes the subject.
Par exemple…
| Active | Les ingénieurs conçoivent les voitures. Ingénieurs is the subject, voitures is the direct object. |
Engineers design cars. | ||
| Passive | Les voitures sont conçues par les ingénieurs. Voitures is the subject, ingénieurs is the agent. |
Cars are designed by engineers. |
Using the passive voice
There are two good reasons to use the passive voice.
1) Emphasize the agent
In the passive voice, the agent is placed at the end of the sentence, which gives it extra weight.
En comparaison…
| Passive | Active | |
| Ce professeur est détesté de tous ses collègues. | Tous ses collègues détestent ce professeur. | |
| Le film a été tourné par un étudiant. | Un étudiant a tourné le film. |
2) Anonymous subject
With the passive voice, you can avoid saying who or what is doing something by leaving out the agent, whereas in the active voice, you have to specify a subject.
Par exemple…
| Passive | Active | |
| La décision est très appréciée. | Tout le monde / Le public / Les gens… apprécie(nt) la décision. | |
| Beaucoup de voitures sont conçues ici. | ___ conçoit (conçoivent) beaucoup de voitures ici. |
Avoiding the passive voice
It’s easy to overuse the somewhat formal passive voice, but there are ways to achieve essentially the same results without it.
1) Emphasize the subject with c’est or ce sont:
| Ce sont les collègues qui détestent ce professeur (pas les étudiants). |
| C’est un étudiant qui a tourné le film (incroyable, n’est-ce pas ?) |
2) For an anonymous subject, you have two options:
a. Impersonal subject pronoun on
| On a pris la décision facilement. | The decision was made easily, We/They made the decision easily. |
|
| On conçoit beaucoup de voitures ici. | Many cars are designed here, We/They design many cars here. |
| La décision s’est prise facilement. | The decision was made easily. | |
| Beaucoup de voitures se conçoivent ici. | Many cars are designed here.. |
Related lessons
- Passive voice conjugations
- Passive constructions
- Action vs state-of-being verbs
- Tenses and moods
- Introduction to verbs
- Prepositions
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