Nitpicking correction to the text

DonC1Kwiziq community member

Nitpicking correction to the text

Where you write "In order to turn a sentence from active to passive voice, the tense of the auxiliary être must be the same as the tense of the main verb of the active sentence," shouldn't you instead say "the auxiliary VERB" or "the auxiliary VERB ÊTRE/AVOIR", especially since the examples that follow use "avoir" and not "être."
Asked 6 years ago
JimC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Hi Don, In the examples, avoir is not used in the passive voice, it is in the active voice only. As I read it no correction is required. Être is used in the passive voice. Let's see if Aurélie is in agreement. Hope this helps. Alan
ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
I concur. Only êtreq is used in the passive voice. -- Chris.
AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour à tous ! Yes, the auxiliary verb for the passive voice is always "être" :) Bonne journée !
SueC1Kwiziq community member
First word in statement and answer vary between LES and DES.....very minor but gets marked as wrong!
JimC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Hi Sue, Yes! They do vary because the active subject becomes the passive object and the active object the passive subject. So the Articles change accordingly -- does this help to answer your point? Regards, Alan
AurélieKwiziq team member

Bonjour Don and Sue !

@Don : I think your confusion comes from the fact that être itself takes the auxiliary avoir in compound tenses, but in these examples, it is indeed être which is used (and conjugated) in the passive voice :)

@Sue : Could you tell me what sentence it was ? I had a look through the questions, and I haven't found any where the article changes between the two voices.

Bonne journée à tous !

Nitpicking correction to the text

Where you write "In order to turn a sentence from active to passive voice, the tense of the auxiliary être must be the same as the tense of the main verb of the active sentence," shouldn't you instead say "the auxiliary VERB" or "the auxiliary VERB ÊTRE/AVOIR", especially since the examples that follow use "avoir" and not "être."

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

Test your French to the CEFR standard

Find your French level
Let me take a look at that...