Breakdown of La bataille a été gagnée par notre armée.
être
to be
avoir
to have
notre
our (singular and plural forms: notre, nos)
gagner
to earn / to win
par
by, through / out of (motive)
l'armée
the army
la bataille
the battle
Questions & Answers about La bataille a été gagnée par notre armée.
Why do we use a été for "was" instead of just était?
In the passive voice, the helping verb être takes the tense of the action. Because winning the battle was a completed, specific event in the past, we use the passé composé of être, which is a été (literally "has been"). If you used the imparfait (était), it would sound more like an ongoing description rather than a single completed action.
Why is there an extra e at the end of gagnée?
In the passive voice, the past participle always agrees with the subject of the sentence. This is because the passive voice always uses a form of être (to be) as its helping verb. Since La bataille is feminine singular, you must add an e to gagné to make it gagnée.
Could we use de instead of par to mean "by our army"?
Not here. In the passive voice, par is used to introduce the agent (the person or thing doing the action) for specific, active events like winning a battle. You only use de for states of being, emotions, or figurative actions (for example, aimé de tous meaning "loved by all").
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