Learn French: Sans apport, tu t'es vu refuser le crédit. - Without a down payment, you were refused the credit.

Sans apport, tu t'es vu refuser le crédit.

Without a down payment, you were refused the credit.

Breakdown of Sans apport, tu t'es vu refuser le crédit.

être

to be

you (informal singular)

Questions & Answers about Sans apport, tu t'es vu refuser le crédit.

Why can't I just translate "you were refused the credit" literally as tu as été refusé le crédit?

In French, you cannot turn an indirect object into the subject of a passive sentence. Because the active form is refuser quelque chose à quelqu'un, the person is an indirect object. You can make the thing the subject (le crédit t'a été refusé), but to keep "you" as the subject, French uses this se voir + infinitive structure instead.

How exactly does tu t'es vu refuser literally translate to give a passive meaning?

Literally, it means "you saw yourself [be] refused". Using se voir (or sometimes s'entendre for spoken things) plus an infinitive is a very natural way in French to express the passive voice when a person is undergoing or receiving an action.

If the person being spoken to (tu) is female, shouldn't vu have an extra "e" (tu t'es vue)?

Actually, no! With reflexive verbs in the passé composé, the past participle only agrees if the reflexive pronoun (t') is the direct object. Because the bank is refusing the credit to you, the t' functions as an indirect object. Therefore, vu does not agree and remains unchanged.

Does apport always mean "down payment"?