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, Le Futur, L'Imparfait, Le Conditionnel Présent, Le Passé Simple):
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.
- 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 (passive voice)
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