Language/French/Grammar/Agreement-of-the-past-participle-of-verbs-conjugated-with-avoir-with-a-preceding-direct-object

Agreement of the Past Participle of Verbs Conjugated with Avoir with a Preceding Direct Object in French Grammar

In French, the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir must agree in gender and number with a preceding direct object when the direct object comes before the verb. In this lesson, we will explore the agreement of the past participle with a preceding direct object in French.

Basic Rule

When the past participle of a verb is conjugated with avoir and is preceded by a direct object, the past participle agrees with the direct object in gender and number. For example:

• J'ai mangé une pomme. (I ate an apple.)
• Elle a acheté des chaussures. (She bought some shoes.)
• Nous avons vu un film. (We saw a movie.)
• Ils ont visité leur famille. (They visited their family.)

Agreement with Gender and Number

The past participle must agree with the direct object in gender and number. When the direct object is masculine singular, the past participle is also masculine singular. When the direct object is feminine singular, the past participle is also feminine singular. When the direct object is plural, the past participle is also plural. For example:

• J'ai mangé une pomme. (I ate an apple.)
• J'ai mangé des pommes. (I ate some apples.)
• Elle a acheté une robe. (She bought a dress.)
• Elle a acheté des robes. (She bought some dresses.)
• Nous avons vu un film intéressant. (We saw an interesting movie.)
• Nous avons vu des films intéressants. (We saw some interesting movies.)
• Ils ont visité leur famille proche. (They visited their close family.)
• Ils ont visité leurs amis proches. (They visited their close friends.)

Exceptions to the Agreement

There are some verbs that use avoir as the auxiliary verb in the passé composé but do not require agreement with the direct object. These verbs include:

• Avoir (to have)
• Pouvoir (to be able to)
• Vouloir (to want)

For example:

• J'ai eu un cadeau. (I had a gift.)
• Elle a pu venir. (She was able to come.)
• Nous avons voulu partir. (We wanted to leave.)

Conclusion

Understanding the agreement of the past participle with a preceding direct object in French is an important part of mastering the language. By knowing 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

• Directly transitive verbs without objects
• Location of adverbs
• Manner adverbs
• Conjugation group 3
• Time adverbs
• Position of object pronouns with imperatives
• Questions
• Easy way of generating the present tense
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Dates
• Omission of the article in noun constructions linked by de