Passive verb building, rules

Passive verbs

Verbtime uses the rules listed here to build passive verbs.

Passive verbs are always built with être!
If a verb does not have a Participe Passé, then the passive form cannot be built.
Generally spoken the following building scheme is valid for all passive verbs:


              Singuliere I     Pers Pron + [être] + Participe Passé (verb) 
              Singuliere II    Pers Pron + [être] + Participe Passé (verb)
              Singuliere III   Pers Pron + [être] + Participe Passé (verb)
              Pluriel I        Pers Pron + [être] + Participe Passé (verb)
              Pluriel II       Pers Pron + [être] + Participe Passé (verb)
              Pluriel III      Pers Pron + [être] + Participe Passé (verb)

Simple tenses as well as composed tenses are built by combining the conjugated auxiliary verb "être" with the verb’s Participe Passé.
The last character of the Participe Passé is changed according to person (male / female) and verb form (singular / plural).
This however is only applicable to the Participe Passé of the verb itself.
The additionally inserted "été" (Participe Passé of "être") in the composed tenses remains unchanged (also see note further below).

Here the following is valid (PP = Participe Passé):

Singular male:	Pers Pron + [être] + PP (verb)	(e.g. j’ai été levé)
Plural male:	Pers Pron + [être] + PP (verb) + s	(e.g. nous avons été levés) *(1)**
Singular female:	Pers Pron + [être] + PP (verb) + e	(e.g. j’ai été levée)
Plural female:	Pers Pron + [être] + PP (verb) + es	(e.g. nous avons été levées)

(*1) The "s" in the Plural/male form is only added, if the verb itself does not end on "s" already.
Example "mettre", where the Participe Passé = mis. In passive tense it becomes "mis", "mise" and "mises", but does not become "miss".

Note

Note that the composed tenses of the auxiliary verb être are built with avoir, means e.g. Passé Composé, Singuliere I = "j’ai été", and not "je suis été".
This is valid also for passive verbs where one can get the impression that in passive tense the auxiliary verb avoir is used for the composes tenses.
In fact however these are the composed forms of the être verb (this is also the reason why the été-insertion in passive remains unchanged.

e.g. Passé Composé, Singuliere III of the verb "lever":

Active:	"il a levé"
Passive:	"il a été levé", as the Passé Composé of être = "il a été" and not "il est été".

also see:
French verb table, overview
Passive verb building, example verb