In Grade 9 you learned to say what happened: j'ai mangé (I ate), elle est partie (she left). The passé composé is the tense of events — the things that happen in a story and move it forward. Grade 10 asks for precision in the written form. Spoken French hides most mistakes, because acheté, achetée, achetés and achetées all sound the same. Written French shows every one, so a reader sees at once whether you know who or what the participle refers to. This lesson gives you a short decision procedure that settles every agreement question, plus the irregular participles you need for real stories: bu, reçu, vécu, ouvert, né.
| Grade 9 recap | With avoir (most verbs) | With être (movement / change of state) |
|---|---|---|
| How it is built | present of avoir + past participle | present of être + past participle |
| -er verbs → -é | j'ai parlé (I spoke) | je suis arrivé(e) (I arrived) |
| -ir verbs → -i | tu as fini (you finished) | tu es parti(e) (you left) |
| -re verbs → -u | il a vendu (he sold) | il est descendu (he went down) |
| Negative | nous n'avons pas fini | elles ne sont pas venues |
| Agreement | normally none (elle a parlé) | with the subject (elles sont parties) |
Irregular past participles to know by heart
| Ending | Infinitive → past participle | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -u | avoir → eu, boire → bu, connaître → connu, courir → couru, croire → cru, devoir → dû, lire → lu, pouvoir → pu, recevoir → reçu, savoir → su, tenir → tenu, venir → venu, vivre → vécu, voir → vu, vouloir → voulu, pleuvoir → plu | Il a plu toute la journée. (It rained all day.) |
| -is | mettre → mis, prendre → pris (also appris, compris), s'asseoir → assis | J'ai mis mon manteau. (I put on my coat.) |
| -it | dire → dit, écrire → écrit, conduire → conduit, faire → fait | Elle a écrit un courriel. (She wrote an email.) |
| -ert | ouvrir → ouvert, offrir → offert, découvrir → découvert, souffrir → souffert | On m'a offert un emploi. (I was offered a job.) |
| one of a kind | être → été, naître → né, mourir → mort, rire → ri, suivre → suivi | Mon grand-père est né à Sudbury. (My grandfather was born in Sudbury.) |
- Elle est sortie avec ses amis. — She went out with her friends.
- Nous sommes montés au troisième étage. — We went up to the third floor.
- Ils sont descendus du bus. — They got off the bus.
- Je suis rentrée à minuit. — I (female) came home at midnight.
- Il est passé chez moi. — He dropped by my place.
- Elle a sorti le chien. — She took the dog out.
- Nous avons monté les valises. — We carried the suitcases up.
- Ils ont descendu l'escalier. — They went down the stairs.
- J'ai rentré les chaises. — I brought the chairs inside.
- Il a passé une semaine à Moncton. — He spent a week in Moncton.
Six verbs can switch: monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, retourner and passer. The test is simple: does the verb have a direct object — something being carried, taken or spent? If yes, use avoir; if no, use être. Notice that Elle a sorti le chien has no agreement: once a verb takes avoir, the subject no longer controls the participle.
With avoir: the preceding direct object rule
With avoir, the participle normally never changes: elle a mangé, elles ont mangé. There is one exception, and it is the most famous rule in written French: the participle agrees with a direct object that comes before the verb. Why? When the object comes first, the writer already knows its gender and number by the time the participle is written, so the participle describes it like an adjective. When the object comes after (j'ai acheté les chaussures), the participle is written before the reader knows what was bought, so it stays in its basic form. The direct object can end up in front of the verb in three common ways.
| How the direct object gets in front | Example | Agrees with |
|---|---|---|
| A direct object pronoun: le, la, l', les, me, te, nous, vous | Ta veste ? Je l'ai trouvée sous le lit. (Your jacket? I found it under the bed.) | l' = la veste, feminine singular → -e |
| The relative pronoun que | Les photos que j'ai prises sont floues. (The photos I took are blurry.) | que = les photos, feminine plural → -es |
| quel / quelle / quels / quelles + noun in a question | Quels livres as-tu lus cet été ? (Which books did you read this summer?) | quels livres, masculine plural → -s |
| me, te, nous, vous as direct objects | Mes amis nous ont invités à souper. (My friends invited us to supper.) | nous = the people invited (here a mixed group) → -s |
Translation: Hi Maya! What a weekend! On Friday my cousin Julie and I went to Québec City by train. On Saturday we visited Old Québec and I took lots of photos. The photos I took in front of the Château Frontenac are really beautiful — I sent them to you this morning. Did you get them? In the evening Julie took out her old guitar and my aunt made us a delicious tourtière. On Sunday it rained, so we stayed at my aunt's. We got home last night. Hugs, Léa. Check each agreement: allées, restées, rentrées agree with nous (two girls) because they use être. prises agrees with que (= les photos), and envoyées and reçues agree with les (= the photos) — all direct objects placed before avoir. But j'ai pris beaucoup de photos has no agreement (object after the verb), Julie a sorti sa guitare uses avoir because sortir has an object, and ma tante nous a préparé une tourtière does not agree with nous, because nous means for us — the real direct object, une tourtière, comes after.