ce n'était pas du tout ce que je m'étais imaginé

Question

not sure why it is not imaginée since it is a lady talking. (reflexive verb, compound tense)

Céline Pickard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour i,
You're correct in noticing that this is a reflexive verb (s'imaginer) in a compound tense (Plus-que-Parfait, or pluperfect in English). However, the reason it's "imaginé" and not "imaginée" is not related to the gender of the speaker, but rather to a specific rule regarding the agreement of past participles with reflexive verbs.
With reflexive verbs in compound tenses, the past participle agrees with the direct object if it comes before the verb. If there is no direct object, or if it comes after the verb, the past participle doesn't agree.
In this case, "ce que" is the direct object (not " m' "), and it comes before the verb. However, "ce que" is neutral in gender, so it doesn't trigger agreement. Therefore, the past participle remains in its default masculine singular form: "imaginé".
Also, here, the pronoun "m'" is an indirect object because it answers "for whom?" not "what?":

- "What did I imagine?" → "Ce que" (that which I imagined) → Direct Object (COD)
- "For whom did I imagine it?" → "Me" (for myself) → Indirect Object (COI)

Take a look here to see why there should not be an agreement:  agreement of reflexive verbs
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !