FRENCH: Voix passive

[orpheus_samhain]

I have a question about a certain sentence in the passive voice. My lecturer, who is not a native speaker, said that my sentence is incorrect. I would appreciate if the native speakers could comment

Comments

[iddewes]

I'm not a native speaker, but it's definitely not just "été construit" because été goes with the passé composé not on its own, I think you meant était. I will let the native speakers tell you what is actually correct though.

[orpheus_samhain]

"était" - possible, maybe I've just heard it spoken and didn't know how to write.

Thank you!

[whswhs]

The form "été" is the past participle, equivalent generally to the English "been." In standard English one would not say "the chateau been built." Past participles function partly as adjectives and partly as elements in multiple-word verbs

[orpheus_samhain]

Thank you. I'm still not sure though: the part "a été construit" could mean both a long process and a point in time? "Was built/has been built"? And it's only by adding "en 1661" or "à partir de 1661" that we can tell? And what about "was being built"?

[simlili]

Again, I can only agree with everything whswhs wrote.
Your mistake was simply incorrect grammar, not a wrong understanding of the voix passive. I guess you thought of "était" (was), which would not work here for the reasons whswhs explained.

The (3) option would have been used for instance if the château de Versailles did not exist anymore. Say some other construction existed where Versailles is now, you could say that that other, no longer existing construction, "avait été construite en 1300", had been built in 1300. Whereas the actual, existing château, has been built from 16xx to I don't know when.

[orpheus_samhain]

Thank you. And how would you translate "was being built" into French?

[cafecomics]

It could have been either "fut construit" or "a été construit" depending on the level of formality you wanted. The problem with "fut construit" is that the passé simple/preterite isn't really used in speech anymore. It's mostly a litterary tense. Passé composé (a été construit) is more common in speech.
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/passesimple.htm
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/passecompose.htm

"avait été construit" is the plus-que-parfait de l'indicatif in passive voice. It's used to refer to something older than that other thing that happenned in the past.
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/pastperfect.htm

Let's ignore the passé antérieur (eut été construit). http://french.about.com/od/

[orpheus_samhain]

Thank you. Which form expresses the process, the continuity in the past better?