Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to form the true passive voice with “être” and use the far more common impersonal “on” construction.

Lesson Explanation

The true passive voice, formed with être + past participle + par (by), exists in French but is genuinely used less often than in English, and requires the participle to agree with the subject, following the agreement rules from Part 3, Lesson 4: Le livre a été écrit par Victor Hugo. (The book was written by Victor Hugo.)

Far more common in everyday French, and genuinely central to natural-sounding speech, is the impersonal on construction (already introduced in Part 1, Lesson 3), which sidesteps the passive voice entirely by using an active verb with “on” as a generic subject: On parle français ici. (French is spoken here — literally “one speaks French here,” but functioning as the natural passive equivalent.) On m’a dit que… (I was told that… — literally “one told me that…”)

This “on” construction is genuinely the default, most natural way to express many ideas that English renders as passive, and overusing the true être passive where “on” would sound more natural is a common sign of overly literal translation from English: On vend des maisons ici. (Houses are sold here) sounds far more natural than the technically correct but stilted Des maisons sont vendues ici.

On always takes the 3rd person singular verb form, regardless of what it actually refers to — even when it means “we” in casual speech, as covered in Part 1, Lesson 3: On va au cinéma. (We’re going to the movies — “va,” not “vont,” even though it means “we.”)

Practice Questions