Learn French: Ceux-ci sont recyclables et peuvent être réutilisés.

To form the passive voice with a modal verb, you conjugate the modal (peuvent), add the infinitive être, and finish with the past participle (réutilisés). This perfectly mirrors the English structure 'can be reused'.

Why does the past participle réutilisés end with an -s?

In any passive construction, the past participle behaves like an adjective and must agree in gender and number with the subject. Here, the subject Ceux-ci is masculine plural, so réutilisés takes the plural -s.

Why does the sentence start with Ceux-ci instead of Ces or Ils?

Ces is a demonstrative adjective meaning 'these' and must be followed by a noun (like Ces objets). Ils simply means 'they'. Ceux-ci is a demonstrative pronoun meaning 'these ones', which replaces a previously mentioned masculine plural noun while strongly pointing it out.

How does the prefix ré- work in the word réutilisés?