Agreement of the past participle

Kurz erklärt

A French past participle can change to match a noun in gender and number: add -e for feminine, -s for plural, or -es for feminine plural. Used like an adjective or with être, it normally agrees with the word it describes. With avoir, it agrees only when the direct object comes before the participle.

Bildung

base form: arrivé; feminine: arrivée; plural: arrivés; feminine plural: arrivées. With avoir: preceding direct object + auxiliary + agreeing past participle.

Verwendung

• Make a participle used as an adjective agree with its noun.
• With être, make the participle agree with the subject.
• With avoir, make it agree with a preceding direct object, including a direct-object pronoun or a noun introduced by que.
• Do not make it agree when the direct object follows the participle or when the preceding pronoun is indirect, such as lui or leur.

Beispiele

• La porte est restée ouverte. — The door remained open.
• Les lettres que j’ai écrites sont sur la table. — The letters I wrote are on the table.
• Ces chaussures, je les ai achetées hier. — I bought these shoes yesterday.
• J’ai acheté ces chaussures hier. — I bought these shoes yesterday.

Typischer Fehler

❌ Les chansons que j’ai entendu étaient magnifiques.

✅ Les chansons que j’ai entendues étaient magnifiques.

English past participles do not show gender or number, so English speakers may omit agreement. Here, que represents the feminine plural direct object les chansons and comes before entendu.

Merke

With avoir, first find the direct object and check whether it comes before the participle. A preceding indirect object never triggers agreement.