
Ranskan passiivisen äänen löytäminen on vaikea oppia? Nopea ja helppo seurata oppaamme on täällä auttaaksesi ymmärtämään paremmin passiivista ääntä! Lue, kuinka voit käyttää sitä tehokkaasti ja hallita sitä hetkessä.
Before we learn about how to form the French Passive Voice, let’s first find out exactly what it is.
What is the Passive Voice?
Hyvä kysymys!
First of all, it’s important to understand that a sentence has two components: a subject and an object. In the active voice, the subject acts on the object. In the passive voice, it’s the opposite: the subject receives the action.
Esimerkiksi:
Active Voice: I (subject) eat (active verb) pasta (object).
Passive Voice: The pasta (object) is eaten (passive verb) by me (subject).
As you can see, in the passive voice the action of eating is carried out by the subject.
The active voice is generally preferred because of its ability to make sentences sound less verbose and flowery, and it also sounds the most natural don’t you think? And often, you’ll find that the subject in the passive voice gets omitted. This means the sentence will look something like: implies that the sentence will look somewhat like – “The pasta is eaten”; this way it remains passive.
The French Passive Voice
Thankfully, the passive voice in French is similar to its English counterpart.
A passive sentence in English always includes a form of the verb “to be” + a past participle.
For example: This dress is sold in many shops.
In French, a passive sentence is built using a conjugated form of the verb être +a past participle
Esimerkiksi: La robe est achetée par Elena. (The dress is bought by Elena).
Tässä: la robe (the dress) is the subject in question, est is a conjugated form of the verb êtreja achetée on menneen osanottaja acheter.
Huomautus: You’ll most likely only hear the passive voice being used in formal situations in French. You might find it in the likes of academic, scientific or technical writing too.
As you’ve probably gathered, it’s important to know your être konjugointipöytä before you begin to tackle the French passive voice. Here’s a quick reminder:
Pronomini | Esitä | Yksinkertainen menneisyys | Tulevaisuus | Epätäydellinen | imperatiivi | |
Je (j’) | suis | fus | serai | étais | ||
Tu | es | fus | seras | étais | sois | |
Il/Elle | est | fut | sera | était | ||
Nous | sommes | fûmes | serons | étions | soyons | |
Vous | êtes | fûtes | serez | étiez | soyez | |
Ils/Elles | sont | furent | seront | étaient | ||
Pronomini | konjunktiivi | ehdollinen | Partisiipin preesens étant | Entinen osallistuja été | ||
Je (j’) | sois | serais | ||||
Tu | sois | serais | ||||
Il/Elle | soit | serait | ||||
Nous | soyons | serions | ||||
Vous | soyez | series | ||||
Ils/Elles | soient | seraient |
Forming the Passive Voice: the Past Participle
To form the passive voice you’ll also need to be confident with your aiemmat partikkelit. In need of a reminder too? We’ve got you covered:
- If the verb ends in -er, the “e” turns into -é and the “r” is dropped.
Esimerkiksi: Parler tulee parlé - If the verb ends in -ir, the “i” remains the same and the “r” is dropped.
Esimerkiksi: Choisir tulee choisi - If the verb ends in -re, ”re” is dropped and exchanged with a “u”.
Esimerkiksi: Entendre tulee entendu
Note: The irregular verbs you’ve come across in the perfect tense are Myös irregular in the past participle.
Another important past participle rule to remember is that it aina needs to agree with the gender and number of the subject of the passive verb and not the person doing the action.
yksikkö | monikko | |
Naisellinen | Parlée Choisie Entendue | Parlées Choisies Entendues |
Maskuliini | Parlé Choisi Entendu | Parlés Choisis Entendus |
The video below is a great way to learn more about the French passive voice:
How to Avoid The Passive Voice
Still not keen on using the passive voice? We totally understand, which is why we’ve included this extra section to show you how:
Käyttää c’est
When you want the subject to be the one to carry out the action rather than object, you can use c’est.
Esimerkiksi:
Passiivinen: Le film a été tourné par un étudiant (Elokuvan ampui opiskelija)
aktiivinen: C’est un étuduant qui a tourne le film (It’s a student who shot the film)
Use Reflexive Verbs
Another way of avoiding passive voice is by making use of reflexive verbs. When you have a sentence in which the subject and object are the same, you can use verbs that require to be preceded with se or s’.
Esimerkiksi:
Les chapeaux s’achètent à 5 euros chacun (The hats are bought for 5 euros each)
3. Use ‘on"
The last way to avoid the passive voice is to employ the indefinite pronoun on .
Esimerkiksi:
On t’a appelé à la maison (Soitimme sinulle kotona)
And there you have it – absolutely everything you need to know about the French Passive voice!
Miksi et kokeisi alla olevaa tietokilpailuamme kokeilemaan tänään oppimiasi?
Nähdään seuraavalla oppitunnilla - ja sillä välin, älä unohda harjoitella! Jos tarvitset apua, ota epäröi ottaa yhteyttä johonkin online-verkostomme French Tutors.