The French Passive Voice: How to Form It and When to Use It

What Is the Passive Voice and Why Use It?

In an active sentence, the subject performs the action: Le gouvernement a adopté la loi. (The government adopted the law.) In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action: La loi a été adoptée par le gouvernement. (The law was adopted by the government.) The passive voice shifts the emphasis from the agent (who did it) to the object (what was affected). In formal French — essays, news writing, and academic texts — it is extremely common and expected at B2 level.

How to Form the French Passive

ÊTRE (conjugated in any tense) + PAST PARTICIPLE (agreeing with the subject)

• Present passive: La décision est prise par le comité. (The decision is made by the committee.)
• Past passive (passé composé): Le rapport a été publié hier. (The report was published yesterday.)
• Imperfect passive: Les lettres étaient envoyées chaque semaine. (Letters were sent every week.)
• Future passive: Le projet sera lancé en janvier. (The project will be launched in January.)

The Agreement Rule: Critical for Writing Scores

The past participle in a passive construction always agrees in gender and number with the subject.

• Le rapport a été publié. (masculine singular)
• La loi a été adoptée. (feminine singular — note the -e)
• Les résultats ont été publiés. (masculine plural — note the -s)
• Les décisions ont été prises. (feminine plural — note the -es)

When to Use ON Instead of the Passive

In spoken French and informal writing, the pronoun on is often used instead of the passive when the agent is unknown or irrelevant.

• Passive (formal): La porte a été fermée. (The door was closed.)
• On (informal): On a fermé la porte. (Someone closed the door. / They closed the door.)

For formal essays and exam writing at B2/C1, the passive construction is preferable as it signals register awareness and grammatical sophistication.

Using the Passive to Elevate Your Writing

The passive voice is one of the clearest signals of B2+ writing. A candidate who writes Cette mesure a été mise en place par le gouvernement afin de lutter contre le chômage demonstrates both passive voice mastery and complex sentence construction in a single sentence. Add one passive construction per paragraph in your DELF B2 essay, and your grammatical range score will reflect it.