Passive Voice – Today’s French

French sentences have a voice, and today’s, we’re looking into the passive voice.

I know straight grammar isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and although it’s not really necessary to understand voices to speak French well, I know some of you are going to put 2 and 2 together more easily with this worksheet.

So here it is. Look at these sentences:

a. La Tour Eiffel est vue de loin par les touristes.

b. La Tour Eiffel se voit de loin.

The passive voice indicates that the subject undergoes the action, or the action is being done to the subject by an agent, not the subject. The agent – par les touristes – is not always clearly stated, as per the second example above.

A sentence in the passive voice can easily be switched to one in the active voice by putting the agent back into its subject position.

Practice

Switch the following sentences from the passive to the active voice.

1.Ce film a déjà été vu par les enfants.

2.Le fromage ne sera pas mangé.

3.Le travail était fait par les ouvriers.

4.Le français se parle dans le monde entier.

5.Les gros mots ne se disent pas en société.

Answers – Solution

1.Les enfants ont déjà vu ce film.

2.On ne mangera pas le fromage.

3.Les ouvriers faisaient le travail.

4.On parle français dans le monde entier.

5.On ne dit pas de gros mots en société.

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