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Where do we put the "ne ... pas" in a negative passive sentence?

For example, for

Le chat attrape la souris.

the passive would be

La souris est attrapée par le chat.

What if I want to say “Le chat n'attrape pas la souris”. How to make the passive voice?

And what about other tenses (especially compound ones)?

Stéphane Gimenez
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Vio
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  • You should write one question per topic, one about the negative, and the other about reflexive verbs, even if the passive is concerned in both questions, it is not sufficient to merge questions & answers. – None Dec 13 '15 at 08:04
  • Jouer du piano. See. The fact that it is a passive voice has no influence on the negative, you still have to place the negation on each side of the auxiliary (here être). See. – None Dec 13 '15 at 08:32
  • Not all verbs can be in the passive voice, which is the case for se souvenir (if my memory does not fail me). – None Dec 13 '15 at 08:39
  • Please ask about passive voice for pronominal verbs in a separate question. – Stéphane Gimenez Dec 13 '15 at 09:18
  • Je joue du piano does't have a passive counterpart, because in French the piano doesn't occupy a direct objet position. I changed the example for one that permits passive voice. – Stéphane Gimenez Dec 13 '15 at 09:22
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    @StéphaneGimenez but jouer du piano can be in used in the passive voice - it's just a matter of no agent being given. lorsque le piano est joué, le piano est joué quotidiennement, etc. – None Dec 13 '15 at 10:10
  • @Laure: Où as tu lu ou entendu ça? C'est grammaticalement incorrect, et me parait complètement artificiel. On joue une pièce ou une musique, mais pas un instrument. – Stéphane Gimenez Dec 13 '15 at 10:25
  • @Laure: Actually du piano est joué is correct (refering to piano music), but this is an overly complicated example. – Stéphane Gimenez Dec 13 '15 at 10:36

2 Answers2

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The negative form of a passive sentence obeys the same rule as when the verb is not in its infinitif form and is composé which thing means the negation ne ... pas must wrap the auxiliaire.

  • Le chat attrape la souris ⇒ La souris n'est pas attrapée par le chat
  • Le chat attrapait la souris ⇒ La souris n'était pas attrapée par le chat
  • Le chat attrapera la souris ⇒ La souris ne sera pas attrapée par le chat
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In all two-verb forms(1) ne precedes the first verb and pas follows it.

La souris n'est pas attrapée

Je ne suis pas monté

Elle n'aura pas terminé

(1) Including both helping verb + past participle (passive voice, passé composé, and all compound tenses/moods) as well as semi-auxiliary verb + infinitive (je ne veux pas aller, il n'aime pas danser, etc)

lkl
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