Language/French/Grammar/Agreement-with-a-preceding-direct-object-pronoun-when-the-participle-is-followed-by-infinitives

Agreement with a direct object pronoun placed before when the participle is followed by infinitives

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Definitions

Subject-verb agreement

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.

Direct Object Pronoun

A direct object pronoun is a word such as "me", "him", "us" and "them", which is used instead of the noun to stand in for the person or thing most directly affected by the action expressed by the verb.

French direct object pronouns are:

French		English	French	English
me	(m’, moi)	me	nous	us
te	(t’, toi)	you	vous	you
le	(l’)	him, it	les	them
la	(l’)	her, it

Infinitives

An infinitive is a verb form in which no one is performing the action.

• In English, the word “to” always precedes the infinitive; for example: “to speak” is an infinitive.
• In French, an infinitive has one of 3 endings: “-er”, “-ir”, or “-re”. For example “manger” (to eat), partir (to leave), and prendre (to take).

Verb preceded by a direct object pronoun and followed by an infinitive

When a verb is preceded by a direct object pronoun and followed by an infinitive, we say that the participle only agrees when:

• the pronoun is the subject of the infinitive and
• is the direct object of the verb containing the participle.

There is no agreement when it is the object of the infinitive.

This means that there will be an agreement, for example, in the following cases:

• Céline a vu une voiture écraser son chat

Céline saw a car run her cat over ("une voiture" is the subject of "écraser" and the object of "vu")

• Céline l'a vue écraser son chat

Céline saw it run her cat over

• Pierre a regardé sa fille gagner la compétition

Pierre watched his daughter win the competition ("sa fille" is the subject of "gagner" and the object of "regardé")

• Pierre l'a regardée gagner la compétition

Pierre watched her win the competition

• On a entendu les voix résonner dans la grotte

We heard the voices echoing in the cave ("les voix" is the subject of "résonner" and the object of "entendu")

• On les a entendues résonner dans la grotte

We heard them echoing in the cave

But no agreement in cases like the following:

• Céline a vu écraser sa maison par une roche

Céline saw her house crushed by a rock ("sa maison" is the object of "écraser")

• Céline l'a vu écraser par une roche

Céline saw it crushed by a rock

• Pierre a regardé détruire la nature par des tracteurs

Pierre watched the nature being destroyed by tractors ("la nature" is the object of "détruire")

• Pierre l'a regardé détruire par des tracteurs

Pierre watched it being destroyed by tractors

• Derrière la maison, j'ai entendu chanter une chanson

Behind the house I heard (someone) singing a song ("une chanson" is the object of "chanter")

• Derrière la maison, je l'ai entendu chanter

Behind the house I heard (someone) singing it

Verbs of perception / Verbs of movement

Verbs which can be preceded by direct object pronouns and followed by infinitives are verbs of perception like:

• entendre

to hear

• écouter

to listen to

• voir

to see

(...)

Verbs of movement like:

• emmener

to take

• amener

bring

• envoyer

to send

(...)

can also be followed by infinitives with subjects that give rise to an agreement:

• J'ai emmené mes amis prendre le repas à la maison

I took my friends to have meal at home ("mes amis" is the subject of "prendr"e and the object of "emmené")

• Je les ai emmenés prendre le repas à la maison

I took them to have meal at home

• Jean a envoyé les stagiaires chercher des enveloppes

Jean sent the interns to look for envelopes ("les stagiaires" is the subject of "chercher" and the object of "envoyer")

• Jean les a envoyées chercher des enveloppes

Jean sent them to look for envelopes.

Verb "laisser"

The verb "laisser" follows the same pattern:

• Nous avons laissé les ados aller à la plage tout seuls

We let the teens go to the beach on their own ("les ados" is the subject of "aller" and the object of "laisser")

• Nous les avons laissés aller à la plage tout seuls

We let them go on to the beach on their own

• Les voisins ont laissé les chats jouer à l'extérieur

The neighbors let the cats play outside ("les chats" is the subject of jouer and the object of "laissé")

• Les voisins les ont laissés jouer à l'extérieur

The neighbours let them play outside

The verb "Faire", on the other hand, is an exception. When followed by an infinitive, its past participle does not agree with direct object placed before:

• Nous les avons fait (NOT "faits") partir à la plage tout seuls

We made them go to the beach on their own

• Les voisins les ont fait (NOT "faits") jouer à l'extérieur

The neighbors made them play outside

NB: Perception verbs and the verb "laisser" can sometimes allow a following infinitive with either a previous subject or a following subject:

• "J'ai entendu les gens crier" or "J'ai entendu cier les gens"

I heard people shout

• "J'ai laissé les ados partir" or "J'ai laissé partir les ados"

I let the teens leave

In any case, if the subject of the infinitive is converted to an unstressed pronoun, there will be an agreement with the past participle:

• Je les ai entendus crier

I heard them shout

• Je les ai laissés partir

I let them go

Other Chapters

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

• Namesake
• Nouns which change form when they refer to males or to females
• Use of the definite article with names of languages
• Use of an année, jour journée, matin matinée, soir soirée
• Restrictions on possible combinations
• Pronominal Verbs
• Ce, and compound forms of être
• Use of the neutral pronoun le
• Prepositions
• Simple arithmetic (le calcul)
• Verb forms — Introduction
• The indirect object complement
• Impersonal subject restricted to il
• Easy way of generating the present tense
• Direct object quantifiers and « en »