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Past participle

Formation

All compound tenses (such as the passé composé, the future perfect, and the past conditional) are composed of two parts: an auxiliary and a past participle. Past participles are generally related to verb infinitives. Infinitives ending in -er, for example, generally drop this ending and substitute "é":

regarder : regardé
voyager : voyagé
danser : dansé

Infinitives ending in -ir generally drop this ending and substitute "i":

choisir : choisi
finir : fini
partir : parti

Infinitives ending in -re generally drop this ending and substitute "u":

répondre : répondu
entendre : entendu

A number of common verbs have irregular past participles, the forms of which are worth remembering:

avoir : eu
être : été
faire : fait
ouvrir : ouvert
savoir : su
boire : bu
lire : lu
pouvoir : pu
devoir : dû (due)
connaître : connu
courir : couru
falloir : fallu
vouloir : voulu
recevoir : reçu
vivre : vécu
mettre : mis
prendre : pris
rire : ri

Participle agreement

Long the bane of students of French, past participle agreement is not as difficult as first appears. There are two basic rules, each one with a nuance:

1. In the case of the verbs normally conjugated with être (the so-called "verbs of motion"; see Auxiliaries) the past participle will agree in number and gender with the subject:

Elle est partie en vacances. (She has left on vacation.)
Ils sont restés chez eux. (They stayed home.)

Nuance: Some être verbs can be used with direct objects, in which case they are conjugated with avoir (see Auxiliaries). When conjugated with avoir, these verbs will conform to the agreement rule for avoir verbs (below).

2. In the case of the verbs normally conjugated with avoir, the past participle never agrees with the subject. It will, however, agree with any preceding direct object. So,

Muriel a acheté une revue. (Muriel bought a magazine.)
Amine a vendu sa voiture. (Amine sold his car.)
Est-ce que Jean a trouvé ses livres? (Did Jean find his books?)

BUT:

Quelle revue Muriel a-t-elle achetée? (Which magazine did Muriel buy?)
Voilà la voiture qu'Amine a vendue. (Here is the car that Amine sold.)
Oui, Jean les a trouvés. (Yes, Jean found them.)

Nuance: When avoir verbs are used reflexively or reciprocally (that is, with a reflexive pronoun), they will be conjugated with être (see Auxiliaries). Nevertheless, they will still only agree with a preceding direct object. Care must be taken to identify whether the reflexive pronoun is a direct or an indirect object pronoun. So,

Les enfants se sont regardés dans la glace. (The children looked at themselves in the mirror.)
[Regarder takes a direct object; therefore the participle agrees with se.]

BUT:

Elles se sont parlé (They spoke to one another.)
[Parler takes an indirect object; therefore there is no agreement with se.]

Elle s'est coupée. (She cut herself.)
[Couper takes a direct object; therefore the participle agrees with se.]

Elle s'est coupé la main. (She cut her hand.)
[La main is the direct object (se here becomes an indirect object pronoun indicating whose hand was cut). Since la main does not precede the participle, there is no agreement.]

In certain expressions, such as faire + infinitive, laisser +infinitive, se rendre compte, and others, the place of the direct object is held by an infinitive or other complement, which will always follow the principal verb. In these expressions no agreement is usually made.



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