Passive Voice
कर्मवाच्य (Passive Voice)
English forms the passive with 'be' + past participle, and French does the same with être — so the basic shape is recognizable either way. Hindi builds its own passive completely differently, using जाना ('to go') as the auxiliary rather than 'to be', though it shares French's habit of the participle agreeing like an adjective.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
être + past participle, agreeing with the subject ≈ Hindi's जाना-based passive
La lettre est écrite par Marie. / Les lettres sont écrites par Marie.
पत्र लिखा जाता है। / पत्र लिखे जाते हैं। (लिखा/लिखे कर्ता के लिंग-वचन से बदलता है)
The French passive is built from être plus a past participle that behaves like an adjective describing the subject — écrite/écrits/écrites all shift their ending to match the subject's gender and number, something English 'is written' never does. Hindi's passive is built differently, from the perfective participle (लिखा) plus a conjugated form of जाना ('to go') rather than 'to be' — पत्र लिखा जाता है, literally 'the letter written goes'. But Hindi does share French's agreement habit: लिखा/लिखे/लिखी all shift to match the subject's gender and number, exactly like French's écrit/écrite/écrits — so while the auxiliary verb itself is completely different, the underlying idea of the participle agreeing like an adjective is one you already have from Hindi.
Only verbs with a direct object can be passivized — Hindi avoids the indirect-object passive too
On lui a donné un livre. (not a natural direct passive in French)
उसे एक किताब दी गई।
Just as in English, only transitive verbs can be turned passive. English also allows passivizing the indirect object of a double-object verb — 'he was given a book' promotes the recipient, not the book, to subject position — but French cannot do this, preferring the active on construction instead. Hindi can express something close to this with उसे एक किताब दी गई ('to him a book was given'), keeping उसे in its dative role rather than promoting it to a nominative subject the way English 'he' does — so Hindi's passive, like French's, resists the English trick of turning a recipient into a grammatical subject.
French uses the true passive far less than English does — Hindi leans toward the active too
On parle français ici. (preferred) vs. Le français est parlé ici. (grammatical but stiffer)
यहाँ फ़्रेंच बोली जाती है।
Even where a direct être-passive is grammatically possible, everyday spoken French usually prefers an active construction with the impersonal on, reserving the true être-passive for formal, written, or journalistic registers. Hindi leans in a similar direction: while फ़्रेंच बोली जाती है is perfectly natural, Hindi conversation often prefers naming a general subject (लोग यहाँ फ़्रेंच बोलते हैं, 'people speak French here') rather than reaching for the passive, especially outside formal writing — so a Hindi speaker's instinct to under-use the passive in casual speech, relative to English, transfers usefully to French too.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
- Hindi
- बनाया जानाbanāyā jānā
- English
- to be made/done
- Hindi
- बेचा जानाbecā jānā
- English
- to be sold
- Hindi
- बनाया जानाbanāyā jānā
- English
- to be built
- Hindi
- आमंत्रित किया जानाāmantrit kiyā jānā
- English
- to be invited
- Hindi
- भुगतान किया जानाbhugtān kiyā jānā
- English
- to be paid
- Hindi
- चुना जानाcunā jānā
- English
- to be chosen
- Hindi
- के द्वाराke dvārā
- English
- by (the agent)
- Hindi
- निर्माणnirmāṇ
- English
- construction