Breakdown of Cette œuvre est exposée par le musée.
être
to be
ce
this (before a noun)
le musée
the museum
par
by, through / out of (motive)
l'œuvre
the work (of art or literature)
exposer
to exhibit
Questions & Answers about Cette œuvre est exposée par le musée.
Why is there an extra "e" at the end of exposée?
In the passive voice, the past participle (exposé) acts like an adjective. It must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. Since cette œuvre is a feminine singular noun, we add an extra e to make it exposée.
How do we know est exposée is the present tense passive and not the past tense (passé composé)?
It is easy to mix them up! Most active verbs in the passé composé use avoir (e.g., le musée a exposé). Only a specific list of motion or state verbs use être in the passé composé. Since exposer isn't one of them, est exposée must be the passive voice. The tense of a passive sentence comes from the verb être. Because est is present tense, this translates to "is exhibited," not "was exhibited."
Why does this sentence use par for "by" instead of de?
In the passive voice, the agent (the person or thing doing the action) is usually introduced by par. You will sometimes see de used instead, but that is reserved for verbs describing states of being, emotions, or figurative actions (like être respecté de). For a concrete, active action like exhibiting, you must use par.
Does œuvre just mean "work" in general, like my daily job?
No, œuvre specifically refers to a work of art, a musical composition, a piece of literature, or a creator's entire body of work. If you are talking about your job, professional labor, or schoolwork, you would use words like travail or emploi.
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