French Grammar - Past Participle Agreement

 

Summary
What you must know What is a Past Participle How to form a Past Participle How to agree the Past Participle The verbs conjugated with Avoir The verbs conjugated with Être The Past Participle of the Pronominal Verbs The Past Participle as an Adjective The Past Participle in Passive Voice sentences

 

WHAT YOU MUST KNOW

1. When the verb is conjugated with the auxiliary verb AVOIR, its past participle doesn't agree with the subject and often remains unchanged. EXAMPLE : Hier, j'ai acheté une voiture. 2. The past participle of the verb conjugated with AVOIR agrees with the direct object when in the sentence it's placed before the verb. EXAMPLES : Voici la voiture que j'ai achetée hier. Voici ma voiture, je l'ai achetée hier. 3. The past participle of the verb conjugated with the auxiliary verb ÊTRE agrees with the subject of the sentence. EXAMPLE : Barbara est venue à mon anniversaire. Les chiens se sont enfuis.

 

What is a Past Participle

A Past Participle is a conjugated form of the verb. It allows the formation of many French compound tenses (passé composé, plus-que-parfait, passé antérieur, futur antérieur, etc.) by adding to the auxiliary verbs AVOIR or ÊTRE.

EXAMPLES

PASSÉ COMPOSÉ : J'ai acheté une voiture.
FUTUR ANTÉRIEUR : Quand nous aurons fini, nous irons manger.
PLUS-QUE-PARFAIT : Il m'a dit qu'il était né en Écosse.

 

How to form a Past Participle

To form the French Past Participle, we most often use the stem of the verb in the infinitive and we add the endings indicated below according to the group of the verb.

The 1^st group verb past participles

To obtain the Past Participle of a 1^st group verb, we remove the ending -er from the verb, then we add the ending -é to the stem.

EXAMPLES

Verb	Singular masculine Past Participle
accepter	accepté
donner	donné
fermer	fermé
parler	parlé

The 2^nd group verb past participles

To obtain the Past Participle of a 2^nd group verb, we remove the ending -ir from the verb, then we add the ending -i to the stem. If it's easier to remember, just remove the -r at the end.

EXAMPLES

Verb	Singular masculine Past Participle
finir	fini
grandir	grandi
obéir	obéi
salir	sali

The 3^rd group verb past participles

The 3^rd group verb Past Participles are formed in an irregular way. They end in -i, -u, -s, -t, -ert.

EXAMPLES

Verb	Singular masculine Past Participle
accueillir	accueilli
dormir	dormi
rire	ri
battre	battu
boire	bu
tenir	tenu
apprendre	appris
comprendre	compris
mettre	mis
offrir	offert
ouvrir	ouvert
dire	dit

 

How to agree a Past Participle

The Past Participle agrees in gender and number with the Subject or the Direct Object of the sentence. The Past Participle doesn't agree with the Indirect Object or any other part of the sentence.

The 1^st group verb past participles

To agree the 1^st group verb past participle, we add to the stem of the verb  :

• -é to form a masculine singular past participle,
• -ée to form a feminine singular past participle,
• -és to form a masculine plural past participle,
• -ées to form a feminine plural past participle.

The 2^nd group verb past participles

To agree the 2^nd group verb past participle, we add to the stem of the verb  :

• -i to form a masculine singular past participle,
• -ie to form a feminine singular past participle,
• -is to form a masculine plural past participle,
• -ies to form a feminine plural past participle.

The 3^rd group verb past participles

As the 3^rd group verbs are irregular, it is necessary to learn their past participles by heart. However, we still add the gender and plural endings to the singular masculine past participle :

• -e to form a feminine singular past participle,
• -s to form a masculine plural past participle,
• -es to form a feminine plural past participle.

 

The verbs conjugated with AVOIR

When the verb is conjugated with the auxiliary verb AVOIR, its past participle doesn't agree with the subject and often remains unchanged.

EXAMPLES

Sophie a parlé.
Nous avons voyagé en France.
Elles ont travaillé lundi dernier.
Vous avez chanté.

Yet, the past participle of the verb conjugated with AVOIR agrees with the direct object when in the sentence it's placed before the verb.

WHAT IS A DIRECT OBJECT

To recognize a direct object in a sentence, you have to know several important things about it. 1. The direct object in the sentence is a noun, a noun group or a pronoun that receives the action of the verb or that's to say which is acted on by the verb. 2. The direct object directly specifies the action of the verb. It cannot be moved or deleted, its role is absolutely essential to the understanding of the sentence. 3. There can be only one direct object in a sentence. 4. Between the verb and the direct object there's no preposition. Examples of a direct object : Élise mange des cerises. => cerises is the direct object in this sentence. Marie porte une robe rouge. => robe rouge is the direct object in this sentence. Pierre offre des fleurs à sa petite amie. => fleurs is the direct object in this sentence. The direct object becomes the subject of the sentence while we transform it into passive voice. EXAMPLES Les cerises sont mangées par Elise. La robe rouge est portée par Marie. Les fleurs sont offertes par Pierre à sa petite amie. Note that not all verbs use the direct object. The verbs which use the direct object are called transitive verbs. There are also verbs we call intransitive verbs. They don't use the direct object.

When does the past participle agree?

The past participle doesn't agree with the Direct Object when the direct object follows the verb. It remains then singular masculine :

Élise a mangé des cerises.
Marie a porté une robe rouge.
Pierre a offert des fleurs à sa petite amie.

We have to agree the past participle, when the direct object is placed before the verb.

Past participle agreement after the pronouns LE, LA, L', LES

When the direct object is replaced with the pronoun le, la, l', les, we agree the past participle with it, when it's placed before the verb.

EXAMPLES

Qui a mangé les cerises ? Pierre les a mangées. => les replacing les cerises is the Direct Object in this sentence. It is placed before the conjugated verb a mangées, so we have to agree the past participle with it by adding the ending -ées, as cerises is feminine and plural.

Où est mon écharpe grise ? Marc l'a portée hier. => l' replaces l'écharpe, which is feminine, we have then to agree the past participle by adding the ending -ée.

Quelles belles fleurs ! Pierre les a offertes à sa petite amie. => les replaces les fleurs, which is feminine and plural, we agree the past participle by adding -ées.

Past participle agreement after the pronoun QUE

The direct object can also be replaced with the relative pronoun que.

EXAMPLES

Les cerises qu’Élise a mangées étaient très bonnes. => qu' represents cerises in this sentence. As qu' is placed before the verb a mangées, we agree the past participle with it by adding the feminine plural ending -ées to the stem of the verb .

C'est la robe rouge que Marie a portée hier. => qu' represents robe rouge in this sentence. As qu' is placed before the verb a portée, we agree the past participle with it by adding the feminine ending -ée to the stem the.

J'adore les fleurs que Pierre a offertes à sa petite amie. => que represents les fleurs in this sentence. As que is placed before the verbe a offert, we agree the past participle with it by adding the feminine plural ending -ées to the stem of the verb.

INVARIABLE PAST PARTICIPLE
As the past participle of the verb conjugated with AVOIR agrees with the Direct Object, the Past Participle of the verbs which do not have a Direct Object is called invariable, which means that it doesn't have either feminine nor plural form. EXAMPLES: accédé, agi, appartenu, brillé, cessé, existé, voyagé.

 

The verbs conjugated with ÊTRE

There is a short list of verbs conjugated only with the auxiliairy verb être : advenir, aller, arriver, décéder, devenir, intervenir, mourir, naître, obvenir, partir, parvenir, redevenir, repartir, rester, retomber, revenir, survenir, venir.

The past participle of the verb conjugated with the auxiliary verb être agrees with the subject of the sentence.

EXAMPLES

Marc est sorti. Julie est sortie, elle aussi.
Nos jumeaux sont nés le 31 décembre 1999.
Marc est tombé. Marie est tombée.
Mes parents sont partis.
Michelle est restée à la maison aujourd'hui.

 

The Past Participle of pronominal verbs

A pronominal verb is a verb which is preceded by the reflexive pronoun se.

The verbs essentially pronominal

There are verbs that are always pronominal, for example s'évader, s'évanouir, s'enfuir, se souvenir, s'abstenir, se désister. Their past participle always agrees in gender and number with the subject of the sentence.

EXAMPLES

Les prisonniers se sont évadés de prison. => The past participle évadés agrees with prisonniers which is the subject of this sentence.

Mélanie s'est évanouie. => The past participle évanouie agrees with Mélanie which is the subject of this sentence.

Nous nous sommes souvenus de cette histoire. => The past participle souvenus agrees with Nous which is the subject of this sentence.

The verbs that are occasionally pronominal

The verbs existing without the reflexive pronoun se, for example cacher, jeter, laver, terminer, tromper, can be used with the pronominal form : se cacher, se jeter, se laver, se terminer, se tromper. Their past participle agrees with the direct object of the sentence.

The verbs occasionnally pronominal are divided into two groups.

1. REFLEXIVE VERBS, when the pronoun se means "oneself".

EXAMPLES

Elle s'est coiffée.
Il s'est noyé.
Elles se sont perdues.

Here, the pronoun se is the Direct Object of the sentence, as there's no other Direct Object. As it's placed before the verb, the past participle agrees with it.

As for the verbs conjugated with avoir, when the Direct Object is placed after the verb, the past participle doesn't agree with it.

EXAMPLES

Elle s'est coiffé les cheveux. => the Direct Object in this sentence is cheveux.

Elle s'est cassé la jambe. => the Direct Object in this sentence is jambe.

Il s'est acheté une baguette. => the Direct Object in this sentence is baguette.

1. RECIPROCAL VERBS, when the pronoun se means "each other".

EXAMPLES

Christine et Amélie se sont saluées.
Pierre et Jacques se sont battus.
Éveline et sa mère se sont regardées.

BUT

Stéphane et Joëlle se sont parlé.
Pierre et Julie se sont souri.
Charles et sa copine se sont plu.

How to know when to agree the Past Participle ?

As we know, the Past Participle agrees with the Direct Object of the sentence. If it doesn't, then we know that se isn't the direct object ! But how to know when se is the direct object and when it isn't ? The information that between the verb and the direct object there's no preposition will help us.

We have to transform the sentence avoiding the use of the pronoun se, like this :

Christine et Amélie se sont saluées. => 1. Christine a salué Amélie. and 2. Amélie a salué Christine. Amélie is the object of the first sentence and Christine is the object of the second sentence.
As there is no preposition between the verb and the object, se is then a direct object.

Let's do the same thing with a sentence where the past participle remains unchanged :

Stéphane et Joëlle se sont parlé. => 1. Stéphane a parlé à Joëlle. and 2. Joëlle a parlé à Stéphane. As there is the preposition à between the verb and the object, then se can't be the Direct Object of this sentence.

 

The Past Participle as an Adjective

The past participle can be used without an auxiliary verb avoir or être. Then it's considered as an adjective. Then it agrees in gender and number with the noun or pronoun to which it refers.

EXAMPLES

Je préfère le café moulu au café soluble. => moulu is the Past Participle of the verb moudre.

Pour cette recette, il nous faudra des amandes blanchies. => blanchies is the Past Participle of the verb blanchir.

Chloé s'est acheté un jeans rapiécé. => rapiécé is the Past Participle of the verb rapiécer.

Je suis épuisé après une dure journée de travail. => épuisé is the Past Participle of the verb épuiser.

 

The Past Participle in Passive Voice sentences

The past participle always agrees in passive voice sentences.

EXAMPLES

Active Voice	Passive Voice
Michelle a mangé une pomme.	La pomme a été mangée par Michelle.
Marc a acheté une bouteille de vin.	La bouteille de vin a été achetée par Marc.
Jules César a conquis la Gaule.	La Gaule a été conquise par Jules César.
Le séisme a détruit la ville.	La ville a été détruite par le séisme.