Agreement of the past participle in French: rules and pitfalls

Agreement of the past participle: this is where many hesitate between « écrite » and « écrit », « vues » and « vu ». I also used to correct my sentences twice at the beginning. The good news? There is a very simple guiding principle, followed by a few particular cases to master with examples.

The basic rule

Two pillars are enough for 80% of cases. 1) With être, the past participle agrees with the subject. 2) With to have, it never agrees never… unless the direct object complement (COD)is placed before the verb. When the COD is before, the past participle agrees with it (gender and number). That's it.

• With être: "She has arrived." (agreement in feminine singular)
• With être: "They have left." (agreement in masculine plural)
• With avoir: "I took notes." (no agreement)
• COD before: "The notes that I took." (agreement in feminine plural)
• COD before: "The letter that he wrote." (agreement in feminine singular)

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs are conjugated with être, but the agreement depends on the function of "se". If "se" is the direct object (the verb is a direct transitive: "se voir"), we agree with the subject. If "se" is the indirect object (verb constructed with "à": "se parler"), we do not agree. And when a true direct object follows the verb, the agreement only occurs if this direct object is placed before.

• Direct transitive: “They saw each other.” (agreement: saw)
• Indirect: “They spoke to each other.” (no agreement, “speak to”)
• Complement after: “She washed her hands.” (no agreement, COD after)
• Complement before: “The hands that she washed.” (agreement: washed)

Three common pitfalls

1. The pronoun “en”: no agreement. “I made many mistakes.” (made is invariable). However, without “en” and with COD before: “The mistakes that I made.”
2. Participle followed by an infinitive (perception): we agree if the COD placed before is the subject of the infinitive. “The children that I saw running.” (the children run → agreement). But: “The songs that I heard singing.” (the songs do not sing → no agreement: heard).
3. With “faire” and “laisser” + infinitive: invariable. “I made them laugh.”; “They let themselves be convinced.” (let without -e or -s).

My experience

What unlocked things for me was asking the questions "who is performing the action?" and "where is the direct object?" For reflexive verbs, I noted contrasting pairs: "They talked to each other" vs "They saw each other." When rereading later, the brain sees the pattern. A little ritual that helped me: write a sentence without agreement, then the same one with a preposed direct object. Two lines, a trigger.

How to practice

Take 10 common verbs (see, take, write, wash, speak…) and compose two sentences for each: one without agreement, one with a preposed direct object. Then, add 3 reflexive verbs (to see each other, to talk to each other, to wash each other) and do the same exercise. If you want to practice in context, the module Sentences from Discus offers free translations and fill-in-the-blank sentences tailored to this topic. And for an overview of the language, you can also take a look at our French page.

To go further

From a syntactical perspective, the agreement of the past participle indicates the agreement with the antecedent when it is a preposed direct object (COD). With the auxiliary verb avoir, the agreement is therefore conditioned by the preposition and the function: "the letters that I wrote" (feminine plural antecedent), but "I wrote letters" (no agreement). In reflexive constructions, we distinguish the reflexive pronoun in the function of COD (agreement: "they saw each other") from COI (no agreement: “they spoke to each other”). For the following participle + infinitive constructions, the usual rule retains theagreement if the antecedent is the subject of the infinitive (“the children I saw running”) and no agreement if it is the object (“the songs I heard singing”). As for “faire” and “laisser” followed by an infinitive, traditional grammar prescribes theinvariability of the participle (e.g., “they let themselves be convinced”). These principles correspond to the standard described by theAcadémie française and remain a useful reference for careful writing.