Forming La Voix Passive with simple tenses in French (French Passive Voice)

In French, you can use La Voix Passive with simple tenses. Let's find out how to form sentences that way.

Sentences in the passive voice with simple tenses in French

In English, an active sentence is turned into a passive one (the Passive voice) as follows:

The cat eats the mouse.    ->    The mouse is eaten by the cat.

Look at passive sentences in French, conjugated in simple tenses (Le Présent (Indicatif), Le Futur Simple (Indicatif), L'Imparfait (Indicatif), Le Conditionnel PrésentLe Passé Simple (Indicatif)):

La souris est mangée par le chat.The mouse is eaten by the cat.

Tu seras applaudi par tes collègues.You will be applauded by your colleagues.

Marie était réveillée par les oiseaux tous les matins.Marie used to be woken up by birds every morning.

Marie serait déçue par cette conclusion.Marie would be disappointed by this conclusion.

Le chevalier fut amené devant le roi de cette contrée par les gardes.The knight was brought before the king of this land by the guards.

Notice that just like in English, the pattern is as follows:

- The object becomes the subject

- We use the auxiliary être conjugated to one of the simple tenses, followed by the past participle of the verb

- We use the preposition par to introduce the complement.

How to go from an active to a passive sentence:

In order to turn a sentence from active to passive voice, the tense of the auxiliary être must be the same as the tense of the main verb of the active sentence.

For example:

Présent:

Mes amis regardent les oiseaux.   ->  Les oiseaux sont regardés par mes amis.

Imparfait:                                                                     

Mon chien regardait les voitures.     ->   Les voitures étaient regardées par mon chien.

Futur:

Les enfants suivront le guide.     ->    Le guide sera suivi par les enfants. 

Note that the past participle agrees with the subject of the auxiliary être.
 

See also  Forming La Voix Passive with compound tenses in French (French Passive Voice) 

Want to make sure your French sounds confident? We’ll map your knowledge and give you free lessons to focus on your gaps and mistakes. Start your Brainmap today »

Learn more about these related French grammar topics

Examples and resources

Marie serait déçue par cette conclusion.Marie would be disappointed by this conclusion.
Tu seras applaudi par tes collègues.You will be applauded by your colleagues.
La souris est mangée par le chat.The mouse is eaten by the cat.
Le chevalier fut amené devant le roi de cette contrée par les gardes.The knight was brought before the king of this land by the guards.
Marie était réveillée par les oiseaux tous les matins.Marie used to be woken up by birds every morning.
Clever stuff happening!