The passive voice in French

The passive voice :

Did you pay attention to the sentences I used? 

Cinema was invented by the Lumière brothers.
The first cinematic film was shot in Lyon.
This tactile writing was created by Louis Braille.
The very first photo in history was taken in 1826.

Yes, I used the passive voice a lot!

The passive voice is used to highlight the result of an action. The sentence doesn't have a different meaning, it's just that we present the fact in a different way, from a different point of view in order to put the complement, which becomes the subject, forward.

Let's see how we form the passive voice:

Let's take this sentence in the active voice : Les frères Lumière ont inventé le cinéma.

I have the subject “Les frères Lumière”, the verb “ont inventé” and the complement of object “le cinéma”. 

To put this sentence to the passive voice, my complement "le cinéma" will become a subject.

I add or transform the verb "être" in the tense of the verb in the sentence, here it is placed between the auxiliary having and the past participle.

And I add at the end what was my subject "Les frères Lumière" which will become the agent introduced by the word "par".

This will result in : Le cinéma a été inventé par les frères Lumière.

Several remarks on the passive voice :

⚠️  You have to make past participle agree with the subject, for example :
La toute première photo de l’histoire a été prise en 1826

⚠️  The agent is not mandatory:
La toute première photo de l’histoire a été prise en 1826 (par Joseph Nicéphore Niépce)

⚠️  The passive voice can be used in all tense
Cette écriture tactile a été créée par Louis Braille.
Le vaccin est créé par les scientifiques.
La téléportation sera inventée par Elon Musk

Make a sentence using the passive voice, write it as a comment!

See you soon for new adventures, in French of course! 🇫🇷