TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > French > Past Participle Agreements (L'Accord du participe passé)

Past Participle Agreements

Past Participles used without an auxiliary

The past participle must agree in number and gender with the noun.

Les pommes tombées (feminine plural)
Les jeunes affamés (masculine plural)
La lettre reçue (feminine singular)
Le bac coulé (masculine singular)

Past participles used with the auxiliary être

The past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject.

La fille est partie (feminine singular)
Le medecin est venu (masculine singular)
Les invités sont arrivés (masculine plural)
Les facultés ont été fermées (feminine plural)

Past participles used with the auxiliary avoir

The past participle is invariable (does not agree), except if the COD precedes the verb, in which case the participle agrees with the object. This does not apply when the COD follows the verb or if a COI.

J'avais passé la serpillière (feminine singular, COD, but after the verb so no agreement)

La serpillière ? Je l'avais passée (feminine singular, COD, before the verb so the participe passé must agree)

J'ai donné une lettre à lui (feminine singular, COI and after the verb, so no agreement)

Je lui ai donné une lettre (feminine singular, COI before the verb. No agreement).

Pronominal verbs

Pronominal verbs generally follow the rules of agreement of verbs taking avoir as the auxiliary verb. If, however, the verb exists only in the pronominal (that is to say, reflexive) form, the participe passé must agree with the subject.

Ils se sont envoyé des cadeaux (envoyer is not usually pronominal, and so follows the rule of avoir and does not agree when placed after the verb).

ils se sont enfuis (s'enfuir is always pronominal, so it agrees with the subject, which is masculine plural).

If it isn't clear whether the complément d'objet is direct or not, ask yourself how the verb is formed.

ils se sont lavés (We lave quelquechose. There is no preposition and so it is a COD).

Ils se sont plu (We plaire à quelqu'un. There is a preposition (à) making it a COI, so there is no agreement).

If the pronominal verb has a passive sense, the past participle must agree with the subject.

Je me suis trompée (I'm pretending to be a girl; so it's feminine. Tromper isn't necessarily pronominal, but as it is passive, it agrees with the subject regardless of position in the sentence.

Past participle before an infinitive

When a past participle is positioned before an infinitive, there is no agreement, unless the COD is placed before the past participle and the COD is the SUBJECT of the infinitive action.

Ces oiseaux que j'ai vus voler/Ces oiseaux, je les ai vus voler (the COD is before the verb, so there is agreement. They are the subject of the infinitive).

les lions, je les ai vu manger (we read that, but it is assumed that they are eating something. That something is the subject, so there is no agreement with lions).

Cette pièce, je l’ai déjà vu jouer (We assume that we see someone joue la pièce. They are the subject, so there is no agreement with pièce).

Ces acteurs, je les ai déjà vus jouer (We see the actors joue la pièce. They are the subject so the past participle agrees, as they are placed before the verb (use of les before the verb, referring to the actors).

Exceptions

When the past participle of the verb faire is placed before an infinitive, it is invariable.

There is a contradiction between the advice of the Académie française and the ministère de l'éducation française. It concerns the treatment of the past participle of the verb laisser when placed before an infinitive. According to the Académie (whose rules I have generally applied in this article) the verb laisser follows the same rules as écouter, aller etc. However, the ministère considers that laissé should be treated in the same fashion as fait, that is to say that it should be invariable before an infinitive.

Past participles preceded by en

The pronoun en is uncertain. We don't, therefore, generally make an agreement with it. We must check that there is no COD before the verb to see whether an agreement must be made.

J'en ai recu des lettres (There is no agreement as the COD (des lettres) is after the verb. En does not invoke an agreement).

Des lettres ? J'en ai reçues (The COD, des lettres, comes before the verb, so we make the agreement on the past participle).

Exceptions

• When the past participle is used as a preposition, there is no agreement.

étant donné la force de l'explosion... (even though the auxiliary is from être, there is no agreement as it is used as a preposition.

Ci-joint une lettre... (There is no agreement as the past participle is acting as a preposition).

La lettre ci-jointe... (In this case, the past participle is acting as an adjective, so it agrees with lettre).

• We do not generally agree the past participle when speaking of a quantity, be that of time, mass, money, etc.

La somme que j'ai reçu (It is a sum of something, and there is no agreement).

• We do not make an agreement when the subject is a sous-entendu, that is to say when the object of the setence isn't marked, but is evident.

J'ai mangé tous les fromages que j'ai pu (Which means in fact (j'ai mangé tous les fromages que j'ai pu manger. Because the COD "tous les fromages" relates to the verb manger at the end of the sentence, which is elipsed (left out), rather than relating to the past participle itself).

• There is no agreement on the past participles of impersonal verbs when conjugated with avoir.

Avec toute la force qu'il ait fallu... (the verb is impersonal and so there is no agreement on its past participle).

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