Study sheet: Past Participle Agreement

📋 Course Outline

1. Agreement with Être
2. Agreement with Avoir
3. Reflexive Verb Agreement
4. COD Placed After
5. Se Rendre Compte
6. Faire or Laisser with Infinitive

📖 1. Agreement with Être

★ Must-know

📌 With the auxiliary être, the past participle agrees with the subject.

Further detail

• In “Elle est arrivée,” the past participle agrees in the feminine singular with the subject elle.

• In “Ils sont partis” and “Elles sont venues,” the past participle shows plural agreement with the subjects.

💡 Memory Hook

Subject agreement: feminine and plural forms change.

📖 2. Agreement with Avoir

★ Must-know

📌 With the auxiliary avoir, the past participle generally does not agree with the subject.

📌 With avoir, the past participle agrees with a direct object (COD) placed before it.

Further detail

• In “Les pommes qu’il a mangées,” les pommes is the COD placed before the past participle, so mangées agrees with it.

• In “Les lettres que j’ai écrites,” les lettres is the COD placed before the past participle, so écrites agrees with it.

💡 Memory Hook

COD before the participle → agreement; COD after or absent → no subject agreement.

📖 3. Reflexive Verb Agreement

★ Must-know

📌 For a reflexive verb, determine whether “se” is a COD or a COI before deciding whether the past participle agrees.

📌 When “se” is a COD, the past participle agrees with it.

Further detail

• In “Ils se sont lavés,” “se” is a COD because they washed themselves, so the past participle agrees.

• In “Ils se sont parlé” and “Elles se sont écrit,” “se” is a COI, so the past participle does not agree.

💡 Memory Hook

se as COD → agreement; se as COI → no agreement.

📖 4. COD Placed After

★ Must-know

📌 When the COD is placed after a reflexive verb, the past participle does not agree with “se.”

Further detail

• In “Elles se sont lavé les mains,” les mains is the COD placed after the past participle, so lavé remains unchanged.

• In “Ils se sont cassé le bras,” le bras is the COD placed after the past participle, so cassé remains unchanged.

💡 Memory Hook

The hands and arm come after the participle, so the participle stays unchanged.

📖 5. Se Rendre Compte

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Se rendre compte : an expression in which “se” is a COI, so the past participle rendu remains unchanged

📝 Essential Points

📌 In “Les élèves se sont rendu compte de leur erreur” and “Elles se sont rendu compte de leur erreur,” rendu remains unchanged.

💡 Memory Hook

In se rendre compte, se is COI, not COD.

📖 6. Faire or Laisser with Infinitive

★ Must-know

📌 With faire or laisser followed by an infinitive, the past participle generally remains unchanged.

Further detail

• In “Les chansons qu’elle a fait écouter,” fait remains unchanged before the infinitive écouter.

• In “Les enfants qu’il a laissé partir,” laissé remains unchanged before the infinitive partir.

💡 Memory Hook

Faire or laisser + infinitive → unchanged past participle.

📊 Synthesis Tables

Main Agreement Rules

Construction	Condition	Agreement
Être	Agreement with the subject	Yes
Avoir	COD before the participle	Yes
Avoir	No preceding COD	No
Reflexive verb	“Se” is COD	Yes
Reflexive verb	“Se” is COI	No