Language/French/Grammar/Agreement-of-the-past-participle-of-pronominal-verbs-in-compound-tenses

Agreement of the Past Participle of Pronominal Verbs in Compound Tenses in French Grammar

In French, the past participle of pronominal verbs must agree in gender and number with the subject when used in compound tenses. In this lesson, we will explore the agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses in French.

Formation of the Compound Tenses

In French, the compound tenses are formed by using an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) in combination with the past participle of the main verb. When using être as the auxiliary verb, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject. Pronominal verbs always use être as the auxiliary verb in compound tenses. For example:

• Je me suis levé tôt. (I got up early.)
• Elle s'est lavée les mains. (She washed her hands.)
• Nous nous sommes amusés hier soir. (We had fun last night.)
• Ils se sont rencontrés à Paris. (They met in Paris.)

Agreement with Gender and Number

The past participle of pronominal verbs must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. When the subject is masculine singular, the past participle is also masculine singular. When the subject is feminine singular, the past participle is also feminine singular. When the subject is plural, the past participle is also plural. For example:

• Je me suis rasé ce matin. (I shaved this morning.)
• Elle s'est maquillée avant de sortir. (She put on makeup before going out.)
• Nous nous sommes habillés rapidement. (We got dressed quickly.)
• Ils se sont reposés après le travail. (They rested after work.)

Exceptions to the Agreement

There are some pronominal verbs that do not require agreement with the subject in compound tenses. These verbs include:

• S'en aller (to leave)
• S'en venir (to come)
• S'enfuir (to flee)
• Se rendre compte (to realize)

For example:

• Je me suis enfui de la maison. (I fled the house.)
• Elle s'est rendu compte de son erreur. (She realized her mistake.)
• Nous nous sommes en allés tôt ce matin. (We left early this morning.)

Conclusion

Understanding the agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses is an important part of mastering the French language. By knowing how to form the compound tenses with pronominal verbs, how to agree with gender and number, and which verbs do not require agreement, you can improve your French language skills and communicate more effectively with native speakers.

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Formation of the passive in French
• L’on VS on
• Subject verb agreement
• Pronouns referring to groups of mixed gender
• Types of adverbs
• Nouns which exist only in plural form
• Definite article
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of “être”
• Easy way of generating the imperfect tense
• Adverbs