French Grammar vs. English Grammar: Passive Voice Exceptions

It is an undeniable fact: English grammar is way more flexible (and in a way more “relaxed”) than its French counterpart.

But that, of course, is not necessarily a French disadvantage: It is no pure coincidence that French has always been celebrated as “the language of clarity and precision”, and was for many centuries the language of choice in diplomacy between several European nations.

Today, we’ll provide an example that showcases a sentence construction which, although permissible in English grammar, is a definite no-no (or a“non non”) in la grammaire française.

Consider the two following sentence constructions in English:

• Romeo sent a letter to Juliette.

• Romeo sent Juliette a letter.

In both sentences, the word “letter” is l’object direct (the direct object) whereas “family” is l’object indirect (the indirect object.)

In a passive sentence, both ways are also correct in English:

• A letter was sent to Juliette by Romeo.

• Juliette was sent a letter by Romeo.

Now, if we move to French and try to say the same, we definitely can’t say:

• Juliette a été envoyée une lettre par Romeo

But you could say:

• Une lettre a été envoyée à Juliette par Romeo.

The reason is that French grammar only allows this form of prepositional object construction: Envoyer <direct object> à <indirect object.>

• “Jean a envoyé une lettre à Juliette” is correct.

But

• “Jean a envoyé Juliette une lettre” is definitely incorrect.

You may rarely hear the latter construction in French movies. But don’t let that fool you, because that could be just a way to portray or hint at an uneducated character, for example!

Other common French verbs than “envoyer” (to send) for which the above applies are:apprendre… à… (to teach… to…); demander… à… (to ask… …); dire… à… (to tell… to…); écrire… à… (to write… to…); donner… à… (to give… to…); laisser… à… (to leave… to…);montrer… à… (to show… to…); pardonner… à… (to forgive… to…); promettre… à… (to promise… to…), etc.

source :http://blogs.transparent.com/french/french-vs-english-passive-voice-exceptions/