Explaining how something is made in French
You are visiting a furniture workshop and explaining a chair’s journey to a shop. Put the object first with être + a past participle: change être for the time and let the participle agree with the object. To name who did it, add par; to start with unspecified people instead, use active on.
A few familiar building blocks
Est and sont mean “is” and “are”; a and ont are the singular and plural forms of avoir used here. On takes a third-person singular verb, even when it means “we”. In this lesson it refers to the people who make or deliver the chairs, without naming them. D’abord means “first”, ensuite “then”: they order the steps. A past participle is a form such as livré, “delivered”. You do not need a list of verbs that take être for journeys: here être builds a passive.
The chair and the two actions
La chaise is “the chair”, les chaises “the chairs”; cette chaise is “this chair”, ces chaises “these chairs”. Une entreprise is “a company”. Here, ici means “here”, hier “yesterday”, le magasin “the shop”, and au magasin “to the shop” (à + le becomes au). Par names the doer: par cette entreprise, “by this company”.
Faire means “make”; fabriquer is a more specific way to say “make/manufacture a physical object”, and is the verb used in the examples. Say on fabrique, “people make”, and use fabriqué as its past participle. Livrer means “deliver”: on livre, “people deliver”, livré, “delivered”. Listen to fabriquée and livrée in the following examples.
Follow one chair from production to delivery
Listen to the two steps: “First, the chair is made here. Then the chair is delivered to the shop.” The chair stays in focus and the makers need not be named. This is the usual process, not a report about one delivery yesterday. You can reuse d’abord and ensuite to connect the actions rather than giving two unrelated facts.
D'abord, la chaise est fabriquée ici.
Ensuite, la chaise est livrée au magasin.
Put the object first: est or sont + participle
For these passive descriptions, start with what receives the action, then use être in the present and the main verb’s past participle: cette chaise est fabriquée ici. For several chairs, use ces chaises sont fabriquées ici. The participle agrees with the subject: fabriqué (masculine singular), fabriquée (feminine singular), fabriqués (masculine plural), fabriquées (feminine plural). Chaise is feminine, so our examples need -e or -es. The regular endings shown here sound alike; the spelling still changes.
English “is made / are made” helps with the meaning, but French also marks gender on the participle. A past participle after present être does not by itself make the sentence past. Here the present describes a regular process; it does not specifically mean “is being made right now”.
la chaise / les chaises + est / sont + participe
Cette chaise est fabriquée ici.
Ces chaises sont fabriquées ici.
A completed delivery: a été or ont été + participle
To report the delivery yesterday, put être in the passé composé: a été for this chair, ont été for these chairs. Keep the two pieces of être: cette chaise a été livrée hier; ces chaises ont été livrées hier. Été stays unchanged, while livrée/livrées agrees with the feminine subject. The pattern is a/ont + été + livré(e)(s), not just a/ont + livré.
To give responsibility, keep the chairs first and add par cette entreprise: “These chairs were delivered by this company.” Par introduces the company that did the delivering, not the destination. Without that information the passive still works: the delivery can matter more than the doer. English “was/were delivered” corresponds here to the three-word French verb group a/ont été livrées.
la chaise / les chaises + a / ont été + participe (+ par…)
Cette chaise a été livrée hier.
Ces chaises ont été livrées hier.
Ces chaises ont été livrées par cette entreprise.
The active alternative: on does the action
Compare ces chaises sont fabriquées ici with on fabrique ces chaises ici: “these chairs are made here” / “people make these chairs here”. In the passive the chairs are the subject; in the active sentence on is the subject and the chairs follow the verb. Here on does not promise that the speaker belongs to the group. English often says “they” or “people”; French keeps the verb singular: on fabrique.
The same choice works in the past: ces chaises ont été livrées hier / on a livré ces chaises hier. With active on a livré, there is no été, and livré does not agree with ces chaises placed after it. This is the agreement rule for this active pattern, not for every sentence with avoir.
on + verbe actif + objet
On fabrique ces chaises ici.
On a livré ces chaises hier.
Recognize the pattern beyond these two tenses
The passive can use other tenses of être too; there is no need to learn all of them now. For this example, focus on the package containing the chair: le colis, a masculine noun meaning “the package”. In “Il sera livré demain”, il refers to that package, and demain means “tomorrow”. Sera points to a future delivery. Just recognize this example; your production target here remains the present and the completed past.
Il sera livré demain.
Explain the chairs, then check
Before listening, try four messages about these chairs, in order: (1) “These chairs are made here.” (2) “These chairs were delivered yesterday.” (3) “These chairs were delivered by this company.” (4) “People delivered these chairs yesterday.” Keep the object first in the first three; use on in the fourth. All the words are above. Then check the four recordings.
Remember: est/sont + agreeing participle for the present process; a/ont été + agreeing participle for the completed delivery; par for the doer. Active on + singular verb offers another way to describe the action. Try connecting two steps of a familiar object’s journey with d’abord and ensuite, without adding information you do not know.
Ces chaises sont fabriquées ici.
Ces chaises ont été livrées hier.
Ces chaises ont été livrées par cette entreprise.
On a livré ces chaises hier.