Le français interactif — Past Participles

Nr 42 – April-May 2013
Le français interactif — Past Participles:
To Agree, or Not to Agree: That is the
Question (Part 1)
In our everyday spoken and written French, one of the verb tenses we use the most is the
passé composé as it is the most common way used to describe events in the past. As its name
implies, the passé composé is a compound tense, so to form it, we need an auxiliary verb (être
or avoir) followed by a past participle. The question of whether to make that past participle
agree with the subject, whether to add an ‘s’ if the subject is plural, or an ‘e’ if it’s feminine,
remains a difficult one. We are not sure if this will reassure you or discourage you, but you
might be surprised to know that it’s a common question asked among native French speakers
as well!
Since this topic covers a lot of ground, we will divide our discussion of it among two
successive issues of French Accent Magazine. Today, we’ll have a review of how the passé
composé is formed and how and when the past participle agrees with the subject. In the next
issue, we will deal with reflexive or pronominal verbs and the rules of agreement of their past
participles with the subject.
As already mentioned above, the passé composé is composed of two elements: the present
tense of the auxiliary verb avoir or être followed by the past participle of the main verb:
passé composé = present tense of auxiliary + past participle.
Note that in most instances the auxiliary verb is avoir.
Example: J’ai acheté du pain ce matin = I bought some bread this morning.
In this sentence, note that the auxiliary verb is avoir and is conjugated in the present tense
with the subject je, and the past participle of the main verb/action of the sentence acheter is
simply acheté.
It is very easy to form the past participle of regular verbs ending in er, such as acheter (to
buy), manger (to eat), parler (to speak), trouver (to find), diner (to dine), laver (to wash),
former (to train), profiter (to enjoy), etc.: you just need to drop the ‘r’ and add an accent aigu
on the ‘e’.
Examples: J’ai mangé; tu as parlé, il a trouvé, nous avons dîné, vous avez lavé, ils ont formé.
Regarding the participe passé of verbs, we mentioned above how easy it is to form the
endings for the Regular er verbs and the good news is: it is the biggest group of verbs as there
are a total of 6428 verbs in this group!
As you may already know, there are 3 main groups of verbs in French. We’ve already seen
the er verbs, but we also have the ir verbs and the re verbs categories. And, of course, let’s
not forget the irregular verbs!
Some of the ir verbs are: finir (to finish), choisir (to choose), établir (to establish), punir (to
punish), mentir (to lie), accomplir (to accomplish), agir (to act), convertir (to convert),
grandir (to grow).
In this case, when forming the participe passé, you just need to drop the ‘r’, and voilà! There
are only 339 verbs in this group.
Examples:
J’ai grandi en France = I grew up in France.
Nous avons fini le repas = We finished the meal.
Now, the third group of verbs is the most problematic because it includes verbs ending in
re such as vendre (to sell), perdre (to loose), répondre (to answer), attendre (to wait for),
descendre (to go down), and the past participles of all of these verbs follow the same pattern.
They all end in ‘u’: vendu, perdu, répondu, etc. There are, however verbs such as prendre (to
take), or mettre (to put or place), and their past participles end in is: pris, mis, compris, etc.
Examples:
J’ai vendu la voiture = I sold the car.
J’ai perdu les clés = I lost the keys.
Il a répondu à ma question = He answered my question.
Nous avons pris un taxi ce matin = We took a taxi this morning.
Où as-tu mis mes clés ? = Where did you put my keys?
There are a number of irregular verbs, i.e. verbs that don't follow a similar pattern in their
conjugation and that you have to memorize the conjugations of. A lot of these verbs end in
oir, such as savoir (to know), pouvoir (to be able), devoir (to be obliged to), voir (to see), etc.
Many of these irregular verbs ending in oir, have a past participle that ends in ‘u’. There are a
good number of verbs that end in re that are irregular verbs, and their past participles simply
have to be memorized: craindre (to fear) = craint; boire (to drink) = bu; faire (to make or to
do) = fait; naître (to be born) = né; être (to be) = été; dire (to say) = dit.
As for the irregular verbs être, avoir, faire, aller, here are the past participles:
J’ai été = I was
J’ai eu = I had
J'ai fait = I did
As for the verb aller, it is formed just like any er verb but it takes the auxiliary verb être!
Je suis allé = I went.
Check out the list of the most important irregular verb and their past participles at the Cliff's
Notes website1.
To see the verbs in their appropriate group category, have a look at the website Conjugue ta
mère2.
If you don’t have a book on verb conjugations, it’s always helpful to have access to one; there
are many of them online. Many students use Word Reference3 for example.
2
Now, going back to the original question of this article: when does the past participle agree
with the subject of the sentence?
Generally, the past participle doesn't agree with the subject when avoir is used as the
auxiliary.
For example, in the following sentence, the subject is feminine plural and the direct object des
films is masculine plural, but no agreement is added to the past participle regardé:
Les filles ont regardé des films = The girls watched some movies.
Note: even though les filles is a feminine subject, the verb ending doesn’t agree with it, its
ending will just be ‘é’, there is no need to add an ‘es’.
Ils n’ont pas réussi l’examen = They didn’t pass the exam.
Same case here; even though the subject ils is plural, the verb réussi is left alone; again, it
doesn’t agree with the masculin plural subject.
Other examples:
Le chien a perdu son maître = The dog lost its master.
Nous avons eu beaucoup de neige cet hiver = We had a lot of snow this winter.
However, when the direct object comes before the past participle, then the past participle
does agree with that direct object (not with the subject).
For example:
Les films que les filles ont regardés étaient intéressants = The films the girls watched were
interesting.
Note how les films is the direct object (it answers the question: “What did they watch?”) and
how the past participle agrees with this direct object, and not with les filles, which is the
subject.
You might ask: does the agreement of the past participle ever affect the pronunciation? Well,
it does when you’re dealing with a feminine direct object and a verb from the second or third
group.
Listen to these examples:
Les lettres que vous avez écrites = The letters that you wrote.
Note that the verb écrire is in the 3rd group of verbs and the direct object is les lettres which is
a feminine and plural noun.
Les fenêtres qu’elle a ouvertes = The windows that she opened.
Again, les fenêtres is a feminine and plural direct object.
Finally, when forming a sentence in the passé composé with the auxiliary verb être, then it
will be necessary to make the past participle agree with the subject:
Je (a girl) suis allée à la pharmacie = I went to the pharmacy.
Since the subject is feminine and the auxiliary verb is être, then you have to make the past
participle of the verb aller agree with the subject so you have to add an ‘e’ to allée. Adding
an ‘e’ or an ‘s’ doesn’t change the pronunciation in this case.
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Listen to these examples:
Nous sommes venues ce matin = We came this morning.
Vous êtes partis à quelle heure ? = At what time did you leave?
As mentioned earlier, there are a lot more verbs which are conjugated with the auxiliary verb
avoir, than with the verb être.
It might help you to remember that most of the verbs of movement such as aller (to go),
venir (to come), rentrer (to go in), sortir (to go out), partir (to leave), retourner (to return),
descendre (to go down), monter (to go up), tomber (to fall) need the verb être.
One exception is the verb visiter which requires the auxiliary verb avoir, and the verb passer
(to pass by, or to spend time) does require agreement when it is used as a verb of motion, but
not when it is used to mean to spend time (or when it is used in a situation where it takes a
direct object).
Listen to these examples:
Nous avons passé trois jours à Bruxelles en avril = We spent three days in Brussells in April there is no past participle agreement because passer is used to mean to spend time.
Elle est passée te voir ce matin = She came by to see you this morning - a verb of motion
conjugated with être and thus the past participle agrees with the subject Elle.
Elle a passé ses examens à Paris = She took her exams in Paris - here passer is not used as a
verb of motion and it takes a direct object (ses examens), and thus there is no agreement.
And to refer to the beginning and the end of life, the verbs: naître (to be born), mourir (to die)
are conjugated with être as the auxiliary:
Aline est née en 1962 = Aline was born in 1962.
Valentine est morte en 1970 = Valentine died in 1970 (as you can hear, the pronunciation of
mort changes when you add the ‘e’).
We hope that we didn’t lose you through these tedious explanations, perhaps reading the
scenario page 7 will help clarify any ambiguities.
1
www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Past-Participles-of-Irregular-Verbs.topicArticleId25559,articleId-25533.html
2
www.conjuguetamere.com/verbes-1er-groupe
3
www.wordreference.com/conj/FrVerbs.aspx
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Exercices
1) Conjugate the following verbs in the passé composé:
1. Je (feminine)/ partir
2. Elles/vendre
3. Nous/aller
4. Vous (2 hommes et 1 femme)/acheter
5. Elle/mourir
6. Nous/rentrer
7. Vous (3 femmes)/visiter
8. Elle/courir
9. Nous/apprendre
10. Ils/sortir
2) Translate the following sentences and try to pay attention the agreement of the past
participle:
1. We (a group of men and women) left for Paris this morning.
2. She saw her best friend (girl) and they went to visit the Louvre.
3. Christine liked her gift; she sent a thank you note.
4. My parents went to Italy, they loved Roma.
5. They (a couple) received free tickets to go see this movie; they enjoyed it very much.
6. The play that we saw last week was excellent.
7. The flowers we planted are blooming now.
8. She was born 3 days ago; the mother had an easy delivery.
9. My cousin (female) took her drivers license exam last week.
3) Dictation – listen to it* and write it on a piece of paper. Try to pay attention to the
agreement of the verbs with the subject.
*Dictée intermédiaire in the magazine (page 6).
Scénario : Une lettre bien difficile à écrire
Margaux écrit une lettre à sa tante, elle
demande à sa mère de l’aider car elle n’est
pas sûre si elle accorde les participes
passés correctement avec le sujet.
Margaux is writing a letter to her aunt,
she asks her mother for some help as she’s
not sure if she’s making her past
participles agree correctly with the
subject.
Margaux : Maman, je suis en train d’écrire
un email à tata et j’ai des questions sur les
terminaisons des verbes.
Maman : Ah t’écris à tata ! C’est bien ! Elle
sera vraiment contente. Alors dis-moi ta
question ma chérie.
Margaux : Je lui ai écrit : “J’ai bien profité
de mon séjour à Paris”. Est-ce que je rajoute
un ‘e’ à profité ?
Margaux: Mom, I’m writing an email to
aunty and I have questions on verb endings.
Mom: Oh you’re writing to aunty ! That’s
good! She’ll be really happy…so tell me
your question, my dear.
Margaux: I wrote to her “J'ai bien profité de
mon séjour à Paris” (I really enjoyed my trip
to Paris). Do I add an e to profité?
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Mom: No, it’s the verb avoir. You know
that you don’t make the past participle agree
with the verb avoir as the auxiliary.
Margaux: Yeah, I know, but then why does
the spell check tell me to add an e when I
wrote “la carte postale que tu as reçue” (the
postcard you received)? I’m lost!
Mom: Right, I understand… It’s true that
French grammar is not always easy.
Actually, in this case, you’re going to make
the agreement because you have a direct
object which is the postcard.
Margaux: Oh wow, I have to review
everything! And with the verb être, I make
the agreement, right?
Mom: Yes, you must make the agreement
with the verb être. For example, “je suis
perdue”, you’ll have to add an e because
you’re a girl.
Margaux: Ok, so now I’m going to write
“les vêtements que tu m’as envoyé” (the
clothes that you sent to me) so what do I add
here?
Mom: Well, is there a direct object?
Maman : Non, puisque c’est le verbe avoir.
Tu sais que tu n’accordes pas le participe
passé avec le verbe avoir comme auxiliaire.
Margaux : Ouais, je sais mais alors pourquoi
est-ce que le spell check m’a dit de mettre un
‘e’ quand j’ai écrit “la carte postale que tu as
reçue” ? Je suis perdue, moi !
Maman : Ah oui, je comprends… C’est vrai
que ce n’est pas toujours facile la grammaire
française. En fait, dans ce cas, tu vas faire
l’accord parce que tu as un complément
d’objet direct qui est la carte postale.
Margaux : Oh la la, il faut que je révise
tout ! Et avec le verbe être, je fais l’accord?
Maman : Oui, tu accordes avec être. Par
exemple, “je suis perdue”, tu mettras un ‘e’
parce que tu es une fille.
Margaux : D’accord, alors maintenant je
vais écrire “les vêtements que tu m’as
envoyé”, alors là je mets quoi ?
Maman : Ben, est-ce qu’il y a un
complément d’objet direct ?
Margaux : Je ne suis pas sûre... T’as pas une
autre façon d’expliquer ?
Maman : Peut-être. Est-ce que tu as un nom
+ ‘que’ avant le sujet + un verbe ?
Margaux : Oui, ça c’est clair ! Alors oui, j’ai
un complément d’objet direct, donc je rajoute
un ‘s’ à “envoyé”. C’est bien cela ?
Maman : Oui, ça marche. Mais quand
même, on va prendre le temps de réviser les
compléments d’objet direct et indirect.
Margaux : Indirect ? Oh non… Donc si
j’écris au passé avec le verbe être, j’accorde
toujours le verbe principal avec le sujet,
n’est-ce pas ?
Maman : Oui, enfin presque toujours. Ça
dépend si tu as un verbe réfléchi ou
pronominal dans la phrase.
Margaux : Quoi ? Réfléchi ? Pronominal ?
Alors là, on arrête !
Maman : Tu as raison, on apprendra ceci
une autre fois.
Margaux: I’m not sure… You don’t have
another way to explain this ?
Mom: Perhaps. Do you have a noun + que
(that) before the subject + a verb?
Margaux: Yes, that’s clear! So yes, I have a
direct object so I’ll add an s to “envoyé”.
That’s right?
Mom: Yes, that works. But anyway we’ll
have to take some time to review the direct
and indirect objects.
Margaux: Indirect? Oh no…. So if I write
with the verb être, I always make the past
participle of the main verb agree with the
subject, right?
Mom: Yes, well almost always. It depends
if you have a reflexive or pronominal verb in
the sentence.
Margaux: What ? Reflexive? Pronominal?
Ok, let’s stop right here!
Mom: You’re right, we’ll learn this another
time.
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Le coin des branchés
Ange ou démon ? Several expressions with the words ange, démon, or diable, are used in
everyday French:
Angels:
Être un ange = to be an angel, a lovely person. For example, we say it to someone who has
done something special for us: Oh tu as fait la vaisselle ? Tu es un ange ! = Oh, you did the
dishes? You are an angel.
Être aux anges = to be very happy. Ex.: Mon mari m'a offert un iPad mini, je suis aux anges
! = My husband gave me an iPad mini, I am so happy!
Avoir une patience d'ange = to be very patient.
Travailler comme un ange = to work very well.
Dormir comme un ange = to sleep very well.
Un ange passe = used when there is an unexpected silence among a group of people who are
chatting. When such a silence occurs, someone will say after a little while: Un ange passe,
and everybody smiles usually, realizing that the discussion had stalled.
Discuter du sexe des anges = to discuss how many angels could dance on the head of a pin
(to focus on insignificant matters while one should concentrate on something more
important). Ex.: - Alors c'était comment la réunion, vous avez enfin pris une décision à propos
de cet associé qui ne veut pas collaborer ? - Tu rigoles, comme d'hab on a discuté du sexe des
anges ! = - So, how was the meeting, did you finally make a decision about this associate who
doesn't want to collaborate? - You must be kidding, as usual we talked how many angels
could dance on the head of a pin!
Devils:
Un vrai petit diable = a bad little child, a little devil. Used mostly to talk about little boys,
either to tell that they are a little naughty, either on a very indulging tone. Ex.: Regarde mon
petit garçon, c'est un vrai petit diable, mais si mignon! = Look at my little boy, he is really a
little devil, but so cute!
C'est un diable d'homme ! = What a guy! Used when talking about a man who has a lot of
determination in what he does.
Avoir le diable au corps = to be very active, full of energy. The meaning is close to the
expression above. Ex.: Cette femme a le diable au corps, elle réussit tout ce qu'elle
entreprend = this woman is so active and energetic that she succeeds at everything she tries.
C'est bien le diable si… = it would be very surprising if… Ex.: C'est bien le diable s'il
n'arrive pas à obtenir ce poste = It would be very surprising if he didn't get this position.
Au diable l'avarice ! = who cares about spending money! An expression used by French
people when they decide to make a purchase that is not reasonable. More generally, au diable
means “who cares”, “whatever”. Au diable l'avarice (= cupidity) comes from a play by
Molière called L'Avare. The full quote is: Au diable l'avarice et les avaricieux!
Aller au diable = go to hell.
Tenter le diable = to take inconsiderate risks (lit.: to tempt the devil).
Demeurer/habiter au diable vauvert = to live very far away. Ex.: Je voulais bien
raccompagner Jeanne, mais elle habite au diable vauvert ! = I wanted to take Jeanne home,
but she lives very far away!
Faire un bruit, un vacarme de tous les diables = to make a lot of noise.
Se démener comme un (beau) diable, se donner un mal du diable = to make a lot of effort
to try to obtain something.
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Se faire l'avocat du diable = to play the devil's advocate.
Tirer le diable par la queue = to live from hand to mouth, to have financial problems. Ex.:
Ma fille est de nouveau au chômage, elle va encore tirer le diable par la queue = My
daughter is unemployed again, she will live again from hand to mouth.
Le démon du jeu = the addiction to gambling.
Réveiller les (ou de) vieux démons = to let old underlying negative feelings or attitudes
resurface.
Note: It is interesting that the English expression “Speak of the devil…” doesn't translate the
same way into French, but rather to: En parlant du loup… (= Speak of the wolf)…
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