Language/French/Grammar/Agreement-of-past-participles-with-direct-objects-placed-before-in-relative-clauses

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Agreement of past participles with direct objects placed before in relative clauses

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Definitions[edit | edit source]

Subject-verb agreement[edit | edit source]

The subject-verb agreement in French is the way to choose the correct ending for verbs in terms of grammatical persons, gender and number, depending on their subject.

Past participle[edit | edit source]

The past participle is a verb form with several roles. It’s essential in the creation of compound verb tenses/moods and the passive voice, and it can also be used as an adjective. The French past participle usually ends -é, -i, or -u, and is equivalent to -ed or -en in English.

The direct object complement[edit | edit source]

The direct object complement (French: le complément d'objet direct) directly completes the verb without any preposition. The verb used with a COD is a direct transitive verb.

To find the COD of a verb, it is most often enough to ask questions:

  • Quoi ? (What?)
  • Qui ? (Who?)

Relative Clause[edit | edit source]

A relative clause (in French, “une proposition subordonnée relative”) provides more information about a noun or pronoun from the previous clause without having to begin a new sentence.

Examples[edit | edit source]

The underlined text in the examples below and the related clause:

  • Ce sont les amis avec lesquels je suis des cours de français.

These are the friends with whom I take French lessons.

  • Vincent, que je connais depuis 1 an, est très intelligent.

Vincent, whom I have known for 1 year, is very intelligent.

  • Antony, qui porte des lunettes, est le plus grand du collège.

Antony, who wears glasses, is the tallest in the college.

Agreement of past participles with direct objects placed before in relative clauses[edit | edit source]

When the start of a relative clause is the implied direct object of that clause and it is placed before the verb, a past participle agrees with it in gender and number:

  • Voilà l'homme que j'ai rencontré au super-marché avant-hier

There's the man I met at the supermarket the day before yesterday

  • Voilà la femme que j'ai rencontrée au super-marché avant-hier

There's the woman I met at the supermarket the day before yesterday

  • Voilà les enfants que j'ai rencontrés au super-marché avant-hier

There are the children I met at the supermarket the day before yesterday

  • Voilà les jeunes filles que j'ai rencontrées au super-marché avant-hier

There are the girls I met at the supermarket the day before yesterday

Note: The past participles of impersonal verbs, like "il y a" (there is / there are), never agree with a complement placed before:

  • II y a eu des incidents

There were incidents

  • Les incidents qu'il y a eu (NOT "eus") ont été vite corrigés

The incidents that there were were quickly corrected

It's important to differentiate between this impersonal use and the personal use where the agreement would take place:

  • Les incidents qu'il a eus ont été vite réparés

The incidents which he had have been quickly corrected

Other Chapters[edit | edit source]

Table of Contents

Nouns


Determiners


Personal and impersonal pronouns


Adjectives


Adverbs


Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers


Verb forms


Verb constructions


Verb and participle agreement


Tense


The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives


The infinitive


Prepositions


Question formation


Relative clauses


Negation


Conjunctions and other linking constructions

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