French past-participle agreement: sentence pairs and practice

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

See why écrit becomes écrites, lavée becomes lavé and entendues becomes entendu. Compare sentence pairs, then check the endings yourself.

B2Practical guide3 min readIn the B2 notebook →

In short

Change one relationship at a time: move the direct object, change what se stands for, or ask who performs the following infinitive. Explain that change before choosing the participle ending.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learnRed watch out

A small group of women singing together in a French rehearsal room, no sheet music microphones labels or writing.
Les chanteuses que j’ai entendues chanter perform the action. Illustration: Atelier

When does the past participle agree with the direct object?

Study first: the same answers, in different positions
SentenceWhat controls agreement?
Elle a écrit les réponses.The direct object follows: no agreement.
Les réponses qu’elle a écrites sont courtes.The preceding direct object is feminine plural.
Elle leur a écrit.The recipients are indirect objects: no agreement.

Ask “wrote what?”: les réponses. In the second sentence, qu’ represents those answers before a écrites. In elle leur a écrit, leur means “to them”: écrire à quelqu’un. A noun appearing earlier is not enough; its grammatical role matters.

Does the past participle agree with se?

Study first: washed whom, or washed what?
SentenceObject relationship
Elle s’est lavée.She washed herself: se is a preceding direct object.
Elle s’est lavé les mains.She washed her hands: les mains is the following direct object.
Elles se sont parlé.Parler à quelqu’un: se is indirect.

In the hand-washing sentence, se means “to herself”; the thing washed is les mains. That gives lavé, even with a feminine subject. The relationship stays the same in the earlier past: elle s’était lavé les mains.

Does the participle agree before an infinitive?

Les chanteuses que j’ai entendues chanter étaient excellentes.

The female singers I heard singing were excellent.

The singers perform the singing; the preceding direct object controls the agreement.

Les chansons que j’ai entendu chanter étaient anciennes.

The songs I heard being sung were old.

Someone sings the songs. They are the object of the infinitive, so entendu stays unchanged.

Keep fait separate in a causative construction: les personnes que j’ai fait venir. Before an infinitive, causative fait stays unchanged. Learn the whole construction rather than extending the perception-verb pattern to every verb.

Before choosing an ending

A self-review aid, not a grade. Ticks are not saved.

Question 1No account needed
Complete with prendre: preceding feminine plural direct object.Les décisions qu’elle a ___ ont changé notre projet.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

prises. The preceding direct object les décisions is feminine plural, so prises takes -es.

Question 2No account needed
Complete with prendre: following direct object.Elle a ___ trois décisions.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

pris. The direct object follows a pris, so the participle stays pris.

Question 3No account needed
Complete the pattern téléphoner à quelqu’un.Ils se sont ___ hier soir.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

téléphoné. Téléphoner à quelqu’un takes an indirect object. Here se does not trigger agreement.

Question 4No account needed
Complete with se préparer: the women prepare themselves.Les deux sœurs se sont ___ pour la réunion.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

préparées. The two sisters prepare themselves: se is a preceding feminine plural direct object, giving préparées.

Question 5No account needed
Complete with préparer: the meal is the following direct object.Les deux sœurs se sont ___ un repas.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

préparé. The following direct object is un repas. The reflexive pronoun is indirect here, so use préparé.

Question 6No account needed
Complete with voir: the actresses perform the action.Les actrices que nous avons ___ jouer étaient formidables.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

vues. The actresses perform the action jouer, so vues agrees with the preceding feminine plural direct object.

Question 7No account needed
Why does parlé stay unchanged in Elles se sont parlé?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

The reflexive pronoun is an indirect object.. Parler à quelqu’un takes an indirect object, so se does not trigger direct-object agreement.

Question 8No account needed
Choose the causative construction.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Les personnes que j’ai fait venir.. Causative fait stays unchanged when followed by an infinitive, here venir.

Keep going