French language Q&A Forum

I understood that the par or devant were essentially the same - both mean to pass by something.  I answered passer devant in this questions just to use a different way of expressing the same meaning.  It was, however, said to be an error and passer par was the correct answer.  Please explain.  Thanks.

Bonjour!

Verbs that use être as auxillary in the perfect past tense, must have agreement of the past participle with the subject pronoun, but what if a direct object pronoun were included in the sentence? Which of the two pronouns would a past participle agree with please? Subject pronoun or direct object pronoun? Please site an example or two with your answer if possible.

Regards, Cheryl

Do non-reflexive verbs used in the past tense with a reflexive pronoun use être or avoir?

For example, if the above sentence "Les deux chiens se fixèrent avec méfiance" is put in the past tense, do we use être with the verb "fixer" (-->"Les deux chiens se sont fixées avec méfiance")?

Or, am I asking the wrong question? In other words, in French perhaps there is no such thing as verbs that are "non-reflexive." Instead, is it that case that any verb used with a reflexive pronoun automatically becomes a reflexive verb, which means the rule regarding use of être in forming the past tense applies?