Language/French/Grammar/Agreement-of-the-past-participle-when-using-“avoir”-with-a-preceding-direct-object
[Changed]
Definitions
Subject-verb agreement
The agreement in French (the agreement) is the way to choose the correct ending for verbs in terms of grammatical persons, gender and number, depending on their subject.
Past participle
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.
French Auxilaries
There are only 2 auxiliaries in French: "avoir" or "être". As "avoir", "être" is used to form compound tenses for some verbs.
Compound Tenses
Conjugations for the different French verb tenses and moods can be divided into 2 categories:
- simple and compound.
Simple tenses and moods have only 1 part (e.g., "je mange") whereas compound tenses and moods have 2 (e.g., "j'ai mangé").
Agreement of the past participle with the use of the auxiliary "avoir" and a direct object which precedes: 3 cases
There are 3 cases where the past participle agrees with the preceding direct object in compound tenses that use the auxiliary "avoir":
- When the direct object above is an unstressed pronoun. For example: "le", "la", "les", "me", "te" etc. "Je les ai vus" (I saw them).
- When the preceding direct object is at the start of a relative clause: for example: "La lettre que j'ai écrite" (The letter which I wrote).
- in questions, when the direct object has been moved before the past participle, for example: "Quelle lettre a-t-il écrite ?" (What letter did he write?) or " Combien de lettres a-t-il lues?" (How many letters did he read?).
Other Lessons
- Subject verb agreement — Verb “être”
- Namesake
- « de » or « du », « de la », « des » after quantifiers
- Use of il, ce, cela and ça as impersonal pronouns
- Sentence modifying adverbs
- Impersonal verbs
- Cardinal Numbers — When to use figures and when to use words
- Easy way of generating the simple past
- Punctuation
- Benefactive me, te, se, nous, vous
- Comparative forms of adjectives
- Verb forms — Conjugations
- Adjectives used as nouns
- Unstressed and Stressed Pronouns
- "C'est" or "Ce sont"