Préparés

nous les avons préparés. Why not préparé? i thought past participle did not change to match subject when avoir is auxiliary.

Hi Damien,

you are correct in that the past participle does not match the COD in the case of avoir

BUT (and there always is a but!)

except for the case when the COD precedes the particple, in which case it IS matched. Let's look at your example:

Nous les avons préparés. --"les" is the COD and precedes the participle ("préparés"). Since "les" is plural (and apparently not all female), the participle needs to take this into account --> "preparés".

-- Chris (not a anative speaker).

thanks Chris, very interesting. By the way, what does COD stand for? i would have called "les" a direct object pronoun. 

COD = Complément d'objet direct.

Yes, "direct object pronoun" is exactly what COD means.

-- Chris.

Bonjour Damien and Chris !

Here is the link to our lesson on past participle agreement with the direct object pronoun with auxiliary avoir :

https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/special-cases-when-the-past-participle-agrees-in-number-and-gender-when-used-with-avoir-in-le-passe-compose-conversational-past

Bonne journée !