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 the compound past in French (Le Passé Composé). 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 the compound past in French (Le Passé Composé) and Conjugate mourir, naître, décéder, devenir, rester (+ être) in the compound past in French (Le Passé Composé).
Learn how to agree the past participle with être in French
Look at these verbs using être as auxiliary in Le Passé Composé:
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:
Marco et Paulo ont dit: "Nous sommes allés en France l'année dernière."Marco and Paulo 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:
- 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:
Want to make sure your French sounds confident? We’ll map your knowledge and give you free lessons to focus on your gaps and mistakes. Start your Braimap today »
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Mes sœurs et toi, Charles, êtes restés un peu plus longtemps.My sisters and you, Charles, stayed a bit longer.
Mademoiselle Rose, vous êtes devenue une charmante jeune fille.Miss Rose, you became a charming young lady.
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."
Pauline a dit: "Je suis allée en France l'année dernière."Pauline said: "I went to France last year."
Louis et toi, Francis, êtes allés en Italie il y a trois ans.Louis and you, Francis, went to Italy three years ago.
Marco et Paulo ont dit: "Nous sommes allés en France l'année dernière."Marco and Paulo said: "We went to France last year."
