Les thèmes du film : the passive voice
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can recognise the passive voice in texts about film and understand how and why it is used.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- The passive is used to say what is done to someone or something.
- The passive is formed using part of 'être' and a past participle. The participle must agree with the noun.
- 'Par' (by) is used to say who or what the action is being done by.
Keywords
Passive voice - when the subject is affected by the action of the verb, but does not 'do' the action of the verb, e.g. 'the house is sold'.
Par - by
Common misconception
Past participle agreement only occurs in the perfect tense.
In the passive voice, all past participles are combined with a form of 'être'. As such, past participle agreement rules apply to all verbs, e.g. 'la scène est critiquée par le journaliste'.
Teacher tip
Teachers might like to discuss with students if they have seen any French language films. Good films to recommend at KS4 include 'La vie scolaire', 'Les choristes' and 'La Famille Bélier'. As always, care must be taken to check that content is suitable for the intended students.
Equipment
Mini whiteboards and pens are useful, if available.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the following sentences is in the active voice?
Q2.Put the following words in the correct order to form a grammatically correct sentence in the passive voice.
Q3.Match the French verb infinitive to its past participle.
vu
fait
pris
écrit
Q4.In the passive voice, what part of 'être' is typically used when the subject is singular and feminine?
Q5.Order the following sentence into French, using the passive voice.
Q6.Why is the passive voice often used in film reviews or news reports?
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Which sentence correctly uses the passive voice and shows past participle agreement?
Q2.Match the subject of each passive sentence to the correctly agreeing past participle.
appréciée
montées
fait
écrits
Q3.Put the following words in the correct order to form a passive sentence about a movie scene.
Q4.Match the active voice sentence to its correct passive voice transformation.
Le livre est écrit par le réalisateur.
Les stars sont applaudies par le public.
Le film est apprécié par la critique.
To help you plan your 11 French lesson on: Les thèmes du film : the passive voice, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 11 French lesson on: Les thèmes du film : the passive voice, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 French lessons from the Media and technology: Un film francophone unit, dive into the full secondary French curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.