Marie passe la farine au tamis avant de préparer la pâte.

Because passe is the present tense form of the verb passer, conjugated for Marie:

• je passe
• tu passes
• il / elle / on passe

Since Marie is a third-person singular subject, the correct form is passe.

So:

• Marie passe la farine... = Marie sifts / passes the flour...

This is a common French structure:

• passer quelque chose au tamis

Literally, it means to pass something through a sieve.

So in the sentence:

• la farine = the thing being passed
• au tamis = through the sieve / in the sieve context

Natural English usually says to sift the flour, but French often expresses it with passer ... au tamis.

Because à + le contracts to au in French.

So:

• à le tamis → au tamis

This contraction is mandatory.

Other common contractions:

• à + les → aux
• de + le → du
• de + les → des

French often uses an article where English might use no article.

Here:

• la farine = the flour
• la pâte = the dough / batter / pastry mixture, depending on context

In recipe language, French commonly uses the definite article with ingredients or substances when referring to them in a general practical way.

So even though English often says:

• sift flour
• prepare dough

French naturally says:

• passer la farine
• préparer la pâte

After avant, French normally uses de before an infinitive.

So:

• avant de + infinitive
• avant de préparer = before preparing

This is just the required structure.

Examples:

• avant de manger = before eating
• avant de partir = before leaving
• avant de préparer la pâte = before preparing the dough

Because the subject of both actions is the same.

In this sentence, Marie does both things:

1. Marie passe la farine au tamis
2. Marie prépare la pâte

When the subject is the same, French often uses:

• avant de + infinitive

So:

• Marie passe la farine au tamis avant de préparer la pâte.

If the subject were different, French would usually use:

• avant que + subjunctive

For example:

• Marie passe la farine au tamis avant que Paul prépare la pâte.

Not always. La pâte can mean different things depending on context:

• dough
• batter
• pastry
• paste in some contexts

In a cooking sentence like this, la pâte most often means the dough or the batter, depending on the recipe.

So the exact English translation depends on what is being made.

Because la farine is the direct object of passe, and au tamis is a prepositional phrase that completes the expression.

Structure:

• Marie = subject
• passe = verb
• la farine = direct object
• au tamis = prepositional phrase
• avant de préparer la pâte = time expression

French word order here is very normal: Subject + verb + object + prepositional phrase + time phrase

Yes, passer is a very common and very flexible verb in French. Its meaning changes a lot depending on context.

Some common meanings include:

• to pass
• to spend time — passer du temps
• to go by / happen — Que se passe-t-il ?
• to take (an exam) — passer un examen
• to hand something — passer le sel
• to put through / strain / sift — passer la farine au tamis

So in this sentence, you should learn the whole expression passer ... au tamis, not just the standalone verb.

Yes. Tamiser la farine is also correct and often more direct.

Compare:

• Marie passe la farine au tamis.
• Marie tamise la farine.

Both mean that Marie is sifting the flour.

The first version is a bit more literal: passes the flour through a sieve.
The second uses the verb tamiser = to sift.

It is in the present indicative:

• Marie passe
• préparer is an infinitive, not a second finite verb

The present tense in French can express:

• a present action
• a habitual action
• a recipe or instruction-like action
• a narrative present

In a sentence like this, it can sound like a description of what Marie does, or a step in a cooking process.

A careful pronunciation would be approximately:

ma-REE pass luh fa-REEN oh ta-MEE ah-VAHN duh pray-pa-RAY luh PAHT

A few useful notes:

• Marie → the stress pattern is different from English Mary
• passe ends in a clear s sound
• farine sounds roughly like fa-REEN
• au sounds like oh
• tamis is pronounced ta-MEE; the final s is silent
• avant de often flows together smoothly in normal speech

Yes, very much so.

French recipes and cooking descriptions often use:

• the present tense
• definite articles with ingredients
• compact infinitive structures like avant de préparer

So this sentence sounds natural as a cooking instruction or as part of a description of someone cooking.