You've seen that in compound tenses, such as Le Passé Composé, the majority of verbs use avoir as auxiliary. See for example Conjugate regular -er verbs (+ avoir) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past). For those verbs, the past participle remains unchanged.
However, it is different when it comes to verbs using être as the auxiliary in Le Passé Composé, such as the Conjugate coming and going verbs (+ être) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past), Conjugate mourir, naître, décéder, devenir, rester (+ être) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past) and Conjugate reflexive verbs (+être) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past).
Look at these verbs using être as auxiliary in Le Passé Composé:
Anthony est devenu boulanger.
Anthony became a baker.
Elle est retournée à la maison.
She went back home.
Les garçons sont revenus !
The boys are back!
Elles sont sorties hier.
They went out yesterday.
Alice s'est maquillée.
Alice put her make-up on.
Jules et Pierre se sont bien amusés le weekend dernier.
Jules and Pierre had fun last weekend.
Note that when être is used as the auxiliary in compound tenses such as Le Passé Composé, the past participle must always agree in gender and number with the subject of the verb.
The endings follow this pattern:
| Masculine | Feminine | |
| Singular | --- | -e |
| Plural | -s |
-es |
Note that when the group includes men AND women, you will always use the masculine-plural ending -s.
Here are some examples:
Gérard a dit: "Je suis allé en France l'année dernière."
Gérard said: "I went to France last year."
Pauline a dit: "Je suis allée en France l'année dernière."
Pauline said: "I went to France last year."
Marco et Paulo ont dit: "Nous sommes allés en France l'année dernière."
Marco and Paulo said: "We went to France last year."
Julia et Émilie ont dit: "Nous sommes allées en France l'année dernière."
Julia and Emilie said: "We went to France last year."
James et Lucy ont dit: "Nous sommes allés en France l'année dernière."
James and Lucy said: "We went to France last year."
ATTENTION: Case of agreement with vous
As you know, the French vous can be used to refer either to more than one person (plural you), or in a polite way to a single person (formal you).
In le Passé Composé of (+ être) verbs, the agreement will depend on which vous is being used:
- with the plural vous, the past participle will take -s or -es depending on the gender of the people in the group it refers to:
Louis et toi, Francis, vous êtes rencontrés il y a trois ans.
Louis and you, Francis, met three years ago.
Isabelle et toi, Marie, êtes parties en même temps.
Isabelle and you, Marie, left at the same time.
Mes sœurs et toi, Charles, êtes restés un peu plus longtemps.
My sisters and you, Charles, stayed a bit longer.
- with the formal/singular vous, the past participle will remain unchanged or take an -e depending on the gender of the person it refers to:
Monsieur Dupont, vous vous êtes trompé.
Mister Dupont, you were mistaken.
Mademoiselle Rose, vous êtes devenue une charmante jeune fille.
Miss Rose, you became a charming young lady.
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Marco et Paulo ont dit: "Nous sommes allés en France l'année dernière."
Marco and Paulo said: "We went to France last year."
Anthony est devenu boulanger.
Anthony became a baker.
Mademoiselle Rose, vous êtes devenue une charmante jeune fille.
Miss Rose, you became a charming young lady.
Isaac, tu t'es bien reposé ?
Isaac, did you rest well?
Jules et Pierre se sont bien amusés le weekend dernier.
Jules and Pierre had fun last weekend.
James et Lucy ont dit: "Nous sommes allés en France l'année dernière."
James and Lucy said: "We went to France last year."
Mes sœurs et toi, Charles, êtes restés un peu plus longtemps.
My sisters and you, Charles, stayed a bit longer.
Elle est retournée à la maison.
She went back home.
Monsieur Dupont, vous vous êtes trompé.
Mister Dupont, you were mistaken.
Gérard a dit: "Je suis allé en France l'année dernière."
Gérard said: "I went to France last year."
Isabelle et toi, Marie, êtes parties en même temps.
Isabelle and you, Marie, left at the same time.
Alice s'est maquillée.
Alice put her make-up on.
Les garçons sont revenus !
The boys are back!
Julia et Émilie ont dit: "Nous sommes allées en France l'année dernière."
Julia and Emilie said: "We went to France last year."
Tammy, pourquoi es-tu revenue ?
Tammy, why did you come back?
Louis et toi, Francis, vous êtes rencontrés il y a trois ans.
Louis and you, Francis, met three years ago.
Pauline a dit: "Je suis allée en France l'année dernière."
Pauline said: "I went to France last year."
Toutes les filles sont allées à Montpellier.
All the girls went to Montpellier.
Elles sont sorties hier.
They went out yesterday.
Loading your KwizQ&A
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
23/03/18
Hi Pryia,
The rules of agreement in French can often seem infuriating as very complicated.
It might put your mind at ease to realise that often these rules only make a difference in the written language and not in spoken French as a lot of the past participles will be pronounced in the same way, e.g. allé, allée, allées ...
Hope this helps!
Ron
Kwiziq community member
24/11/17
Would you please clarify your post as I don't see a question posed here?
Ron
Kwiziq community member
25/11/17
Since you have not replied to my request for clarification on your question, I can only guess at what you are having difficulty with. So here goes:
Firstly, if you are reading this in the Q&A section, you will need to go to the lesson referenced in your statement, then if you scroll down this list of questions on the lesson, you should find a couple of links provided by Gruff in response to Brian's similar concern.
Having said that, I am going to provide you with a couple of other «outside» links that also cover agreeing the past participle with the subject's gender and number when using être as the auxiliary verb in le passé composé.
http://laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/tap3.html
https://www.francaisfacile.com/exercices/exercice-francais-2/exercice-francais-9508.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJCJCfKR0gA
Further, I typically do not like to use resources outside of Kwiziq but sometimes it becomes necessary to get a broader perspective on the topic.
I hope that my response is the issue you are having difficulty with and helps to clarify it for you.
Bonne chance et bonne continuation.
Ron ( un locuteur non natif)
Gruff
Kwiziq language super star
22/07/17
Hope that helps, Gruff
Brian
Kwiziq community member
22/07/17
Gruff
Kwiziq language super star
23/07/17
Ah, I think the lesson for special case(s) for direct objects that you might be thinking about is this:
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
Note that these special cases concern when you need to agree the past participle when 'avoir' is the auxiliary. The participle must always agree when 'être' is the auxiliary.
Hope that helps!
Brian
Kwiziq community member
23/07/17
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/agreement-with-pronominal-verbs/
You will note that Laura uses the following example: Elles se sont lavé les cheveux. Note that there is no agreement unless (like with avoir) the direct object precedes the auxilliary verb. The direct object is les cheveux, se becomes the indirect object.
Gruff
Kwiziq language super star
23/07/17
Elles se sont lavées. (Qui est lavé ? "Elles", écrit avant, accord)
Elles se sont lavé les cheveux. (Ce qui est lavé ? "les cheveux", écrit après, pas d'accord.)
Les cheveux qu'elles se sont lavés (Ce qui est lavé ? "les cheveux", écrit avant, accord.)
I'm not sure I entirely follow the logic of this, but it apparently the case!
Aurelie is away currently, but I'll make sure she takes a look too and we can have a Kwiziq lesson to deal with these cases (and there appear to be even more arcane rules on top from what I've read since.)
Thanks for pointing this out!
Cordialement, Gruff
Brian
Kwiziq community member
23/07/17
Ron
Kwiziq community member
23/07/17
Désolé, mais je n'ai pas trouvé votre exemple de ce que tu parle.
Brian
Kwiziq community member
23/07/17
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
14/07/17
Yes, and here's why:
- Il est mort = he died
Here it's Le Passé Composé of mourir, which is one of verbs that take être as an auxiliary.
- Il est mort = he is dead
Here it's simply Le Présent of être (to be) + the adjective (derived from the past participle of mourir) mort.
I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !
Arash
Kwiziq community member
26 April 2017
2 replies
Quelles bonnes résolutions as-tu prises cette année?
Quelles bonnes résolutions as-tu prises cette année? Does in this question the verb agrees with object?
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
28/04/17
Oui absolument !
Indeed the object of the verb here would be "les bonnes résolutions" (what did you take? -resolutions), and this object is placed before the auxiliary "avoir" in the sentence, so "pris" needs to agree with the feminine plural word "résolutions" = "prises".
Bonne journée !
Adrienne
Kwiziq community member
28/05/17
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
3/08/16
Thanks, but it's not our video. You'd need to contact the person who made it via YouTube.
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
8/08/16
Thanks for reporting that mistake, we decided to remove the video and replace it with an accurate one. We even added a rap version to remember the être verbs!
À bientôt !
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
18/02/16
When you say "J'y suis tombé(e)", you're saying "I fell (in) there".
The adverbial pronoun "y" here is used to replace a place that could have been mentioned previously. I agree that out of context, it sounds a bit weird!
If you meant "I fell", you could of course say "Je suis tombé(e)".
In our lesson, we're using the example "J'y suis allé(e)" (I went there). In that case, you couldn't just say "Je suis allé(e)" (I went), as in French the verb "aller" always needs a mentioned location (i.e. to go where?).
I hope that's helpful!
Aurélie
Jenny
Kwiziq community member
18/02/16
Jenny
John
Kwiziq community member
3 April 2018
9 replies
We brushed our hair is given as 'Nous nous sommes brossé les cheveux'. As 'nous' implies that more than one person is involved, why not 'brossés'?
Alan
Kwiziq community member
3 April 2018
3/04/18
This question has been asked before, and it seems that it is not yet covered on this site, but it is explained here:
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/agreement-with-pronominal-verbs/
Chris
Kwiziq community member
4 April 2018
4/04/18
Hi John,
You are correct, it ought to be, "Nous nous sommes brossés les cheveux." Or, if it is a purely female group, "Nous nous sommes brossées les cheveux."
The site Alan quotes in his reply is a good one to check.
-- Chris (not a native speaker).
Alan
Kwiziq community member
4 April 2018
4/04/18
Hi Chris,
No, actually it should be "Nous nous sommes brossé les cheveux", because there is a direct object "les cheveux" which comes after the verb. This is explained on the link given - case 3 1/2
There's also some discussion of this in the other Q&As for this topic.
Alan
Kwiziq community member
4 April 2018
4/04/18
Chris
Kwiziq community member
4 April 2018
4/04/18
Actually, no. In the case of être, the participe always agrees.
-- Chris.
John
Kwiziq community member
4 April 2018
4/04/18
Alan
Kwiziq community member
4 April 2018
4/04/18
Chris
Kwiziq community member
4 April 2018
4/04/18
Hi Alan, that's a VERY interesting point, indeed. According to the site, there should not be an agreement of the participle. However, I asked two native French speakers, one of them a French (as a second language) teacher, and both said that the participle needs to match the subject in the example we are discussing
I did some more internet research and found confirmation the rule you found on Laura's site. So it seems I did learn something new today! Thanks!!
-- Chris (not a native speaker).
Chris
Kwiziq community member
4 April 2018
4/04/18
Elle s'est cassé la jambe. -- She broke her legs (no agreement).
Quelle jambe s'est-elle cassée? -- Which leg did she break? (agreement)
-- Chris (not a native speaker).