Breakdown of Le livre est publié par l'éditeur et lu par le lecteur.
être
to be
et
and
le livre
the book
lire
to read
publier
to publish
par
by, through / out of (motive)
l'éditeur
the publisher
le lecteur
the reader
Questions & Answers about Le livre est publié par l'éditeur et lu par le lecteur.
How is the passive voice formed in Le livre est publié par l'éditeur?
It uses the present tense of the verb être (est) followed by the past participle of the main verb (publié). The person doing the action (the agent) is introduced by the preposition par (by).
Why is there no est before lu in the second half of the sentence?
Just like in English, you don't need to repeat the auxiliary verb être after the conjunction et. It is understood that est applies to both publié and lu.
Why don't the past participles publié and lu have any extra endings?
In the passive voice, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. Since le livre is masculine and singular, publié and lu remain in their base forms. If the subject were feminine (like la lettre), they would become publiée and lue.
Is l'éditeur the French word for "the editor"?
What verb does lu come from?
Lu is the irregular past participle of the verb lire (to read). Even though it's irregular, it acts exactly like a regular verb in this passive structure.
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