Agreement of the Past Participle

When the passé composé tense is formed in French, we use an auxiliary verb (either être or avoir) and a past participle of the conjugated verb. Sometimes, the past participle needs to agree with the subject.

Past Participle Used with Être

Rule 1: With the auxiliary verb être, the past participle agrees with the subject.

- When the subject is a male singular noun, the past participle remains the same:

- When the subject is a female singular noun, -e is added to the end of the past participle:

- When the subject is a male plural noun, -s is added to the end of the past participle:

- When the subject is a female plural noun, -es is added to the end of the past participle:

Past Participle Used with Avoir

Rule 2: With the auxiliary verb avoir, the past participle usually doesn't agree with the subject.

Exception: When the past participle has to agree with this object in several situations:

- when it follows a direct object

- in questions where the object is mentioned before the participle

- in relative sentences with que