The french language

The French Language Comparisons to English

Passive Voice
The passive voice is shared by French and English.
There are many similarities between the languages.
‘By’ phrases (‘Par’ phrases).
Agreement of ‘to be’ verb.
Past participle of main verb.

Distinctions
The French language does not allow intransitive verbs to be put in the passive.
This can confuse ESL students since English will allow passive voice without a direct object.
The passive is mostly used for style so it is avoided as much as possible.

Spelling dificulties
In both English and French the subject and the verb need to agree. In French, the agreement is not only in tense but also in spelling. If the subject and object are different genders, when they are switched the gender of the verb needs to change to agree. This may cause problems for an ESL student since English does not have gender distinctions and they may compensate by changing the spelling anyway.

The french language

by Jon Muir

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