In short

The passive voice turns the object of an action into the subject: it is built with être + past participle, and the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number. The doer, when named, follows par (or sometimes de).

The rule

In an active sentence the subject does the action: Le chef prépare le repas (The chef prepares the meal). In the passive, the thing acted on becomes the subject and the doer moves to the back: Le repas est préparé par le chef (The meal is prepared by the chef).

Only transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object) can be made passive.

être + past participle + par / de

The passive is always être (conjugated in the tense you need) + past participle. The tense of the sentence lives in être, not in the participle:

• Present: La lettre est écrite. (The letter is written.)
• Passé composé: La lettre a été écrite. (The letter was / has been written.)
• Imparfait: La lettre était écrite. (The letter was being / used to be written.)
• Futur simple: La lettre sera écrite. (The letter will be written.)
• Conditionnel: La lettre serait écrite. (The letter would be written.)

The agent (the doer) is introduced by a preposition:

• par - the default, for a concrete, specific action: Le voleur a été arrêté par la police. (The thief was arrested by the police.)
• de - with verbs of emotion, description, or accompaniment, where the state is more general than a one-off act: Elle est aimée de tous. (She is loved by everyone.) La colline est couverte de neige. (The hill is covered with snow.) Le directeur est respecté de ses employés. (The director is respected by his employees.)

Common de verbs: aimé de, respecté de, connu de, entouré de, couvert de, suivi de, précédé de, accompagné de, orné de, bordé de.

The agent can also simply be left out when it is unknown or unimportant: Le magasin a été cambriolé (par quelqu’un). (The shop was burgled.)

Agreement of the participle with the subject

Because the passive uses être, the past participle behaves like an adjective and agrees with the subject in gender and number - exactly like agreement in the passé composé with être (Lesson 21):

• masculine singular: Le livre est publié.
• feminine singular: La revue est publiée.
• masculine plural: Les livres sont publiés.
• feminine plural: Les revues sont publiées.

In a compound tense both parts follow their own rule: the auxiliary participle été is invariable, but the main participle still agrees. So Les revues ont été publiées. - été never changes, publiées agrees.

When to prefer on instead

French uses the passive far less than English. When the doer is unknown, general, or simply “people”, the natural choice is the active pronoun on (see Lesson 01) with the verb in the active voice:

• On parle français ici. rather than Le français est parlé ici. (French is spoken here.)
• On a volé mon vélo. rather than Mon vélo a été volé. (My bike was stolen.)
• On m’a dit que… (I was told that…) - English passive, but French uses on.

Prefer on especially when:

• the agent is unspecified or generic (people, someone, they);
• the English subject is an indirect object - French has no personal passive of the type “I was given a book”; say On m’a donné un livre.
• you want a lighter, more spoken tone; the être + participle passive can feel heavy or formal.

Reserve the full passive for when you want to keep the object in focus or actually name the agent with par.

Forms & patterns

Passive across tenses (verb inviter, subject elle):

Participle agreement with the subject (verb choisir -> choisi):

par vs de:

Examples

Common mistakes

• La lettre est écrit -> La lettre est écrite - the participle agrees with the feminine subject la lettre.
• Les livres ont été publié -> Les livres ont été publiés - été stays invariable but the main participle publié agrees with the plural subject.
• Il est aimé par tous -> Il est aimé de tous - verbs of emotion take de, not par.
• Je suis donné un livre -> On m’a donné un livre - French has no passive on an indirect object; use on + active.
• Le français est parlé ici (heavy, unnatural) -> On parle français ici - prefer on when the agent is generic.
• La maison a construit par mon oncle -> La maison a été construite par mon oncle - the passive needs être (a été), not just the auxiliary a.

Tips

• The tense sits in être; the participle only carries agreement. Ask “what tense is être in?” to name the passive tense.
• Agreement rule of thumb: since it is être, treat the participle like an adjective and match the subject - just as in Lesson 21.
• Default to par; switch to de only with the small family of emotion/description verbs (aimé, connu, couvert, entouré, suivi de).
• If the English sentence has an unknown or generic doer, reach for on + active before building a passive.
• Never make an indirect object the subject of a French passive; rephrase with on (On lui a répondu, not Il a été répondu, for “he was answered”).
• Only transitive verbs go passive: you cannot make aller, venir, or arriver passive.