The agreement of past participles in French is a key aspect of the perfect tense (or le passé composé). It’s a big topic for French learners and can seem confusing at times, which is why we’ve chosen it as the topic of our latest episode of The Coffee Break French Show.
The Coffee Break French Show is a video and audio podcast series, in which we help you improve your French with each episode. Join Pierre-Benoît and Mark in the latest one to find out everything you need to know about past participles in French.
We’ll clarify what is a past participle in French, then walk through the rules of past participle agreement, including what happens when you have a preceding direct object in French.
So, let’s get started, and we’d recommend listening along to the episode as you read. C’est parti !
What is a past participle in French?
First things first, let’s clarify exactly what we mean by past participles in French. The past participle is a specific form of a verb, which is used to create compound tenses, such as the passé composé in French, or the present perfect in English.
For example, in the following sentence, in both English and French, we see the subject pronoun (je / “I”), followed by the auxiliary verb (ai / “have”), and finally the past participle (parlé / “spoken”).
J’ai parlé.
I have spoken (or I spoke).
Regular past participles in French
As we’ve just seen with parlé, the past participle form of all regular -er verbs (such as parler) ends in -é.
For regular -ir verbs (such as finir), the ending is -i. For example:
J’ai fini.
I have finished (or I finished).
And, finally, for regular -re verbs (such as vendre), the past participle ending is -u. For instance:
J’ai vendu.
I have sold (or I sold).
When is there no past participle agreement?
In all of the examples we’ve seen so far, avoir is the auxiliary verb. Remember that to form the perfect tense in French, the auxiliary verb required is either avoir (“to have”) or être (“to be”), and the decision depends on the verb, as well as the nature of it in the particular context.
When constructing sentences in the perfect tense with the auxiliary verb avoir, the general rule is that the past participle does not agree in gender or number with the subject. There is one significant exception to this general rule, which we will come to further on in this article, so stay tuned!
When is there agreement of past participles in French?
However, when the auxiliary verb being used to form the perfect tense of a verb is être, the general rule is that the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject (that is to say the person or thing carrying out the action of the verb). For example:
Pierre-Benoît est allé au supermarché.
Pierre-Benoît went / has gone to the supermarket.
Aller (“to go”) is a verb that takes the auxiliary être in the perfect tense, and the basic form of its past participle is allé. When the subject of the verb is masculine (in this case, a male person), the past participle does not change its form, because the default form is the same as the masculine singular form.
Hélène est allée au supermarché.
Hélène went / has gone to the supermarket.
Here, however, since the subject of the verb is feminine (in this case, a female person), we add an extra -e to the past participle allé so that it agrees: allée.
Verbs that take ‘être’ in the perfect tense
But which verbs use the auxiliary être in the passé composé?
There is a group of verbs in French that are known as verbs of movement or state. All of these verbs usually take être as their auxiliary verb. Again, there are some exceptions to this, which we’ll cover later on.
Here is the list of verbs of movement in French:
entrer (“to enter”) & rentrer (“to return”, “to come back in”)
sortir (“to leave”)
aller (“to go”)
venir (“to come”) & revenir (“to come back”)
arriver (“to arrive”)
partir (“to leave”)
monter (“to go up”)
descendre (“to go down”)
tomber (“to fall”)
rester (“to stay”)
mourir (“to die”)
naître (“to be born”)
devenir (“to become”)
retourner (“to return”, “to go back”)
Let’s see some examples using one of these verbs. Pay attention to how the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject of the verb each time.
L’avion est arrivé.
The plane arrived / has arrived.
L’ambulance est arrivée.
The ambulance arrived / has arrived.
Les avions sont arrivés.
The planes arrived / have arrived.
Les ambulances sont arrivées.
The ambulances arrived / have arrived.
Reflexive verbs in the perfect tense
All reflexive verbs also take être as their auxiliary verb in the perfect tense. Let’s look at some examples, paying attention again to the agreement of the past participles in French.
Christophe s’est réveillé.
Christophe woke up / has woken up.
Lucie s’est réveillée.
Lucie woke up / has woken up.
Lucie et Christophe se sont réveillés.
Lucie and Christophe woke up / have woken up.
Lucie et Hélène se sont réveillées.
Lucie and Hélène woke up / have woken up.
What is the preceding direct object rule in French?
We saw earlier that, in general, when avoir is the auxiliary verb used, there is no agreement of the past participle.
However, there are certain situations where there is past participle agreement when the auxiliary verb is avoir. This is where there is a preceding direct object in French, and where this is the case, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object. Let’s see how it works.
The following sentence is a straightforward sentence in the perfect tense with the auxiliary verb avoir.
J’ai mangé un biscuit.
I ate a biscuit.
Next, let’s switch things around.
le biscuit que j’ai mangé
the biscuit that I ate
This time, the direct object of the verb manger (i.e. what has been eaten – le biscuit) is coming before the whole verbal construction j’ai mangé. Here, the past participle mangé has to agree in gender and number with the direct object. However, because biscuit is a masculine singular noun, mangé remains in its default form.
What about if what has been eaten is a feminine noun? First of all, a straightforward construction:
J’ai mangé une pomme.
I ate an apple.
This time, when the direct object comes before the verbal construction, we see that the past participle becomes mangée, with an extra -e added. This is because the past participle is now agreeing with a feminine singular noun, pomme.
la pomme que j’ai mangée
the apple that I ate
Let’s try this with some plural nouns. See if you can follow the pattern.
J’ai mangé deux biscuits.
I ate two biscuits.
les deux biscuits que j’ai mangés
the two biscuits that I ate
J’ai mangé deux pommes.
I ate two apples.
les deux pommes que j’ai mangées
the two apples that I ate
In all of these examples, where there is a preceding direct object in French, the past participle agrees with it in gender and number, even though the auxiliary verb being used is avoir.
Typically ‘être’ verbs that sometimes take ‘avoir’
There is one more aspect of the agreement of past participles in French to cover. Did you know that some verbs from our list of verbs that take être as their auxiliary can also take avoir? For example, it can be surprising when you first come across phrases such as j’ai monté or j’ai sorti, when we are used to thinking of these as être verbs.
This is because some verbs can use either avoir or être as the auxiliary verb in compound tenses, depending on the context. Let’s see how this works with some examples:
Je suis monté(e) dans le bus.
I got on the bus.
J’ai monté les cartons dans la chambre.
I took the boxes up to the room.
Je suis descendu(e) dans la cave.
I went down to the cellar.
J’ai descendu les cartons.
I took the boxes down.
In these examples, when monter and descendre are used with the auxiliary verb avoir, this is because they involve a direct object – there is an object that is being brought up or down – and so follow the rule of no agreement of the past participle (unless there’s a preceding direct object). When used with être as the auxiliary, monter and descendre indicate movement of the subject itself and so require agreement with the subject.
Practising the agreement of past participles in French
Now, it’s over to you! Put your knowledge of past participles in French to the test by translating the following sentences. The answers are at the end of this article.
- Her little sister came down but did not want to eat.
- The story which I have told you is not true.
For more practice of the agreement of past participles in French, don’t forget to download your free worksheet, which you can find below.
We hope that this has helped with your understanding of past participles in French when forming the perfect tense, as well as what happens when you have a preceding direct object in French.
For more explanations and to get the most out of this article, join Pierre-Benoît and Mark on The Coffee Break French Show. We have more episodes coming soon, so don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts, or to our channel on YouTube, so that you know when new episodes are available.
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Happy Coffee Breaking!
PS. Here are the answers to the translation challenge:
- Sa petite sœur est descendue mais n’a pas voulu manger.
- L’histoire que je t’ai racontée n’est pas vraie.
