Special cases when the past participle agrees (in number & gender) when used with 'avoir' in Le Passé Composé

The rule is: if the COD comes before the participle, then you need to agree the participle.

Les fleurs -- COD (feminine, plural)
que -- relative pronoun, referring to "les fleurs"
je -- subject
ai -- auxiliary verb (form of avoir)
senties -- participle of sentir.

Since "que" comes before "senties", the participle needs to match feminine, plural.

 

Some may rightly argue that "que" is the COD. That doesn't change the result, though, because "les fleurs" determine ultimately the matching of the participle. 

Merci Chris pour votre response. Je comprends maintenant.

Hi Stewart, it all hinges on the little pronoun "que". It is the stand in for the direct object in the relative clause. If it refers to a masculine noun in plural, you would need to have agreement between it and the participles.

I am not sure of the entire sentence, but when you check, you'll find that "que" refers to a masuline noun in plural.

-- Chris.

Thanks Chris, I now see that the use of 'que' was in the lesson after all!

Hi Akex,

"As-tu les vus" is an inverted question and means "Did you see them?"

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Hi Alex,

It  could only be 'Les as-tu vus?" or 'Est-ce que tu les as vus?

as an alternative.

Hope this helps!

Hi Ann,

no, in fact, all past participles follow the rules explained in the lesson. I am not aware of some verbs which wouldn't follow it.

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Hi Ann,

In the case of true 'intransitive'  verbs which by definition don't have an object , the past participle will not agree .

I am not sure that a list would help with this.

(N.B. some verbs can be both intransitive and transitive like servir, commencer ...)

Impersonal verbs as in expressions like 'il faut' or 'il y a' will always be become 'il a fallu' and  'il y a eu'.

There is a group of verbs however which is interesting like coûter, valoir, peser, mesuser, courir...which express measure, quantity and duration  will be 'invariable' with 'avoir' even if the object precedes the verbs because the object is a quantity and answers to the question 'combien' and not 'quoi'.

e.g. 

Les millions d'euros que cette réparation nous a coûté...

Les kilos que ce paquet a pesé... 

Les heures que j'ai couru...

Hope this helps!

 

Yes, thanks!

Sorry, accidentally pressed enter :D Anyhow, I was wondering about a particular sentence : "Ils se sont lavé les mains." Does "lavé" not agree with "les mains" because the COI is before the COD? I didn't find a sentence like this in the lesson so I figured I'd ask. Merci! :)

Bonjour Meghna ! The difference between "voir" and "regarder" is the same as between "to see" and "to watch". "Tu as regardé ce film ?" (Have you watched that film?) "Tu as vu ce film ?" (Have you seen that film?) "Tu as vu ces fleurs ?" (Have you seen these flowers?) "J'ai regardé les fleurs de mon jardin." (I watched the flowers in my garden.) I hope that's helpful! À bientôt !

Bonjour Kevin, At Kwiziq, kwizzes are created dynamically based on the lessons in your StudyPlan and/or Notebook. If the lesson isn't in your StudyPlan, you can add it to your Notebook and then click the kwiz button.

Bonjour Sylvia, If you're asking whether e.g., aller and allé are pronounced differently - they're not.

Bonjour Susan,

No. You need the relative pronoun que when it's serving as the direct object, but qui when it's serving as the subject. All of the examples in this lesson happen to need the direct object.

See these lessons for more info:

Relative pronoun que

Relative pronoun qui

Merci, Laura!