Passive voice

How to form the passive voice from the active voiceé

verbs are conjugated with the
auxiliary être + past participle

The tense of the auxiliary indicates the overall
tense
 L’oiseau est attrapé par le chat
 L’oiseau a été attrapé par le chat
 L’oiseau sera attrapé par le chat

We use par to indicate who is doing the action
of the verb

Only verbs that take a direct object (direcly transitive verbs can be turned into passive voice)

verbs whpose prepositional objects must keep the preposition and cannot be made the subject of a passive are (19)

all verbs here are followed by qqc à qqn

1. accorder

2. apprendre

3. commander

4. conseiller

5. défendre

6. demander

7. donner

8. écrire

9. enseigner

10. laisser

11. montrer

12. offrir

13. pardonner

14. passer

15. permettre

16. prescrire

17. prêter

18. promettre

19. refuser

How to avoid using the passive voice in french when translating from english? (4 ways)

1. use on with the active form
   → on ne nous a pas facilité l'accès à l’Ambassade = Access to the Embassy has not been made easy for us

2. The use of an impersonal verb and or pronoun
   → Il est interdit de fumer à l'intérieur de l'établissement = smoking is forbidden inside the building
   → Cela n’a certainement psa rendu notre travail plus facile = our work certainly wasn’t made any easier

3. Use a reflective verb
   → Les mirabelles ne se vendent plus le long de la route = Mirabelle plums are no longer sold on the roadside

4. The use of a noun to represent a process
   → L’essemblage de ces téléviseurs par la compagnie française a lieu en Chine = These television sets are assembled by the French company in China
   

What about verbs that have opposite meanings from each other?

TO avoid the passive voice, you cna also use a verb with the opposite meaning e.g vendre = to sell and acheter = to buy to change a sentence from passive to active voice
→ Des pommes ont été vendues à Marianne (PASSIVE VOICE)

becomes

→ Marianne a acheté des pommes (ACTIVE VOICE)