Grammar
B1

The Passive Voice

La voix passive en anglais est utilisée pour mettre l'accent sur l'action plutôt que sur le sujet.

Découvrez comment former et utiliser la voix passive à tous les temps grâce à nos explications détaillées.

Quand le sujet subit l'action au lieu de la faire. Formation : BE + Past Participle

Active vs Passive

Active Voice

Le sujet fait l'action

"Shakespeare wrote Hamlet."

Subject → Verb → Object

Passive Voice

Le sujet subit l'action

"Hamlet was written by Shakespeare."

Object → BE + PP → (by Agent)

Formula

Subject + BE (conjugué) + Past Participle + (by agent)

The letter

New subject

was written

BE + PP

by John

(optionnel)

Passive in All Tenses

TenseActivePassiveBE form
Present SimpleThey make cars.Cars are made.am/is/are
Past SimpleThey made cars.Cars were made.was/were
Present PerfectThey have made cars.Cars have been made.have/has been
Past PerfectThey had made cars.Cars had been made.had been
Future SimpleThey will make cars.Cars will be made.will be
ModalThey can make cars.Cars can be made.can be

When to Use Passive Voice

L'agent est inconnu

"My bike was stolen."
🏢

L'agent n'est pas important

"The building was constructed in 1990."
🔬

Langage formel/scientifique

"The experiment was conducted carefully."
🎨

Mettre l'accent sur l'action/objet

"The Mona Lisa was painted by Da Vinci."

Common Mistakes

❌ The book was wrote by her.

✅ The book was written by her.

Utiliser le Past Participle, pas le Past Simple!

❌ The window is break.

✅ The window is broken.

BE + Past Participle obligatoire

❌ It was happened yesterday.

✅ It happened yesterday.

"Happen" est intransitif - pas de passif!

Practice Passive Voice

Test your knowledge with our interactive quiz.

Passive Voice Quiz
EdTech AI