Hier, la photographe a exposé ses images dans une galerie du quartier.

Yesterday, the photographer exhibited her pictures in a neighborhood gallery.

Breakdown of Hier, la photographe a exposé ses images dans une galerie du quartier.

• dans: in
• hier: yesterday
• le quartier: the neighborhood
• ses: her
• du: of the
• exposer: to exhibit
• la photographe: the photographer
• l'image: the picture
• la galerie: the gallery

Questions & Answers about Hier, la photographe a exposé ses images dans une galerie du quartier.

How do you know the photographer is female in la photographe, and does the noun change form in the feminine?

The article la tells you the photographer is female.

The noun photographe itself has the same spelling for masculine and feminine:

• le photographe = the (male) photographer
• la photographe = the (female) photographer

Many profession nouns ending in -e don’t change in the feminine; only the article (and sometimes adjectives) show the gender.

Why is there an accent on exposé in a exposé? How is this different from the present tense?

In a exposé, you have:

• a = 3rd person singular of avoir (present tense)
• exposé = past participle of exposer

So a exposé = (she) has exhibited / (she) exhibited.

Compare:

• Elle expose ses images. = She exhibits / shows her images.
  
  • expose (no accent) = present, 3rd person singular.
• Elle a exposé ses images. = She exhibited / has exhibited her images.
  
  • exposé (with é) = past participle.

The accent marks the past participle, distinguishing it from the present form.

Why does a exposé use avoir as the auxiliary and not être?

Most French verbs form the passé composé with avoir, not être.

• Exposer is a normal transitive verb (it can take a direct object: ses images), so it uses avoir:
  • Elle a exposé ses images.

Être is mainly used for:

1. Movement/”house of être” verbs:

   • aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, etc.
   • e.g. Elle est arrivée.

2. All reflexive/pronominal verbs:

   • se lever, s’ennuyer, se souvenir, etc.
   • e.g. Elle s’est levée.

Since exposer is neither of those, you use avoir.

Why doesn’t exposé agree in gender or number with la photographe or ses images? Shouldn’t it be exposée or exposées?

With avoir as an auxiliary, the past participle only agrees in gender and number if a direct object comes before the verb.

In the sentence:

• La photographe a exposé ses images...
  • Subject: la photographe (feminine singular)
  • Verb: a exposé
  • Direct object: ses images (plural), but it comes after the verb

Rules:

• With avoir:
  • No agreement with the subject.
  • Agreement with a preceding direct object only.

Here, ses images comes after a exposé, so exposé stays in its default form (masculine singular):

• La photographe a exposé ses images. ✔
• If the direct object were before, you could see agreement:
  • Les images qu’elle a exposées.
    
    • Here les images (fem. plural) is before, so exposées agrees.

Why is passé composé (a exposé) used here instead of another past tense like exposait?

Passé composé (here: a exposé) is normally used for completed, one-off actions in the past, often with a clear time marker like hier (yesterday).

• Hier, la photographe a exposé ses images...
  → It happened once, yesterday, and it’s seen as a finished event.

Other possibilities:

• Hier, la photographe exposait ses images...
  → Imparfait (exposait) suggests a background action, something ongoing in the past (e.g. to set the scene), not a simple finished event:
  • e.g. Hier, la photographe exposait ses images quand je suis arrivé.
    • She was exhibiting when I arrived.

So a exposé matches the idea of a single completed action on that specific day.

What exactly does ses mean in ses images? Does it mean her, his, or their?

Ses is a plural possessive adjective. It can mean:

• her images
• his images
• its images
• their images (if ses refers back to a singular noun like la personne → that person’s images)

It agrees in number and gender with the noun possessed, not with the owner:

• son image = his/her/its image (singular, feminine noun, but starts with a vowel so it takes son)
• ses images = his/her/its images (plural)

In your sentence, context tells us it’s her images because the subject is la photographe (a woman), but grammatically ses itself doesn’t specify gender.

Why is it ses images and not ses photos? Are image and photo the same in French?

They overlap, but they’re not identical:

• une photo = a photograph (specifically a photo taken with a camera).
• une image = more general: an image, which could be a photo, a drawing, a digital image, a painting, etc.

In the context of a photographer in a gallery, ses images can suggest:

• her photographic works as visual pieces, not just “snapshots”
• or, more broadly, visual artworks she created/produced.

You could say ses photos, especially if you specifically mean her photographs:

• Hier, la photographe a exposé ses photos... ✔

But images sounds a bit more artistic or general.

Why is it dans une galerie and not à une galerie?

In French, dans is often used when you are inside a place:

• dans une galerie = in / inside a gallery
• dans un musée, dans une salle, dans une église

À is more general (“at / to”) and is often used with:

• proper names: à Paris, à la Galerie X
• events or institutions: à l’école, à l’exposition

Here, dans une galerie emphasizes the idea of inside the physical space of a gallery, which fits the idea of exhibiting works in a room or building.
À une galerie would sound odd; you might say:

• dans une galerie d’art ✔
• à la galerie d’art Dupont ✔ (because it’s a specific place name, like an institution).

What does du quartier mean exactly, and how is it formed?

Du quartier is a contraction of:

• de + le quartier → du quartier

Literally: “of the neighborhood”.

So:

• une galerie du quartier = a gallery of the neighborhood, i.e. a local gallery, a gallery in that neighborhood.

This is a common pattern:

• le parc du quartier = the neighborhood park
• le café du coin = the local café / the café on the corner

Why is quartier used here instead of something closer to English neighborhood or area, like voisinage?

In modern French:

• un quartier = a district / neighborhood within a town or city

  • e.g. un quartier résidentiel, un quartier étudiant, le quartier latin

• le voisinage = the people who live nearby (your neighbors collectively), or the notion of being near something

  • more like the neighbors or the vicinity.

So if you want to say a gallery in the neighborhood, you naturally say:

• une galerie du quartier ✔

Une galerie du voisinage would sound strange and not idiomatic in this context.

Can hier go in other positions in the sentence, and is the comma after Hier necessary?

Yes, hier (yesterday) is quite flexible:

All of these are correct:

1. Hier, la photographe a exposé ses images dans une galerie du quartier.
2. La photographe, hier, a exposé ses images dans une galerie du quartier. (more emphatic, a bit heavier)
3. La photographe a exposé ses images hier dans une galerie du quartier.
4. La photographe a exposé, hier, ses images dans une galerie du quartier. (again, more emphatic)

Regarding the comma:

• At the very beginning of the sentence, with a time adverb like hier, the comma is standard and recommended:
  • Hier, la photographe...
• In other positions, commas become more a matter of style and emphasis rather than strict obligation.

So the original punctuation is natural and correct, but you can move hier if you want a different rhythm or focus.