French › Level four lessons › Agreement of past participles with avoir · Accord du participe passé avec avoir

Règle de grammaire

Past participles that take the auxiliary verb avoir sometimes agree (in gender and number) with the direct object of the verb, depending where the latter is put:

• If the direct object comes BEFORE the past participle, then the latter must AGREE with the object.
  
• If the direct object comes AFTER the past participle, then the latter DOESN'T AGREE with the object.

1. J'ai tué la vache que l'on m'a donnée

   (the object, vache, comes before the verb a donné and therefore the past participle takes an extra -e to agree with the feminine vache)

2. On m'a donné la vache.
3. Nous avons vu de belles filles
4. Les filles que nous avons vues étaient belles.

Rappel: les pronoms directs et indirects

1. Le, la and les are all direct object pronouns, as well as me, te, vous and nous when these are used DIRECTLY (ex. Je l'ai mangé, tu m'as aimé - because these mean J'ai mangé lui, tu as aimé moi - no prepositions.)
2. However, lui and leur are always indirect, as well as me, te, nous and vous used INDIRECTLY - with a preposition, 'with you', 'to me' etc. (ex. Tu lui as parlé, on m'a donné le pain - because here what is meant is Tu as parlé à lui, on a donné le pain à moi - they are not direct as they are preceded by à)

• NOTE: For verbs like mis and appris that already end in -s, there is no need to add another ending when making them masculine plural. Therefore we say Le fait qu'il a appris, les faits qu'il a appris BUT La chose qu'il a apprise & Les choses qu'il a apprises.