FREN 3051 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Ice Cream, Reflexive Pronoun
Document Summary
The passive voice is used to show that the subject of the verb does not perform the action, but rather undergoes the action or is acted upon. Look at some examples: passive: i was congratulated by my friends. ( i is the subject. , active: my friends congratulated me. ( me is the direct object. ) The sentences above can be passive in both french and english: active: my husband bought me a new car. ( me is the indirect object. ) The sentence above cannot be passive in french (although the passive english sentence a new car was bought for me by my husband is acceptable) because it is impossible to convert the indirect object to a passive subject. If there is no direct object of the verb in french, the sentence may not be passive: passive: the letters were answered. This sentence cannot be passive in french because there is no direct object.
