Le conte est illustré par ce peintre.

Questions & Answers about Le conte est illustré par ce peintre.

How do we know this sentence is in the passive voice?
Just like in English, the French passive voice uses the verb être (to be) combined with a past participle. Here, est and illustré work together to show that the tale is receiving the action rather than doing it.
Does the past participle illustré need to agree with anything?
Yes, in the passive voice, the past participle always agrees in gender and number with the subject. Because Le conte is a masculine singular noun, illustré takes no extra endings. If the subject were feminine, like L'histoire, it would become est illustrée.
Why do we use par to say by in this sentence?
In the passive voice, par introduces the agent, which is the person or thing actually performing the action. French sometimes uses de instead, but usually only for verbs describing emotions or states of being. Because illustrating is a specific, active action, par is the right choice.
Quick refresher: why is it ce peintre and not cet peintre?
The word for this or that before a masculine singular noun is ce. You only switch to cet if the next word begins with a vowel or a silent H to make pronunciation smoother. Since peintre starts with a consonant, ce is correct.

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