Le participe passé – the past participle in French

When to use the participe passé

We use the French past participle in the following situations:

• To form compound tenses and structures with the auxiliaries avoir and être.

• As an adjective. In this case, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the noun or pronoun it is describing.

  Examples:

  L'équipe a gagné grâce au but marqué par Max.The team won thanks to Max’s goal.

  L’équipe a gagné grâce aux buts marqués par Max.The team won thank to Max’s goals.

How to form le participe passé

Regular verbs

-er Verbs

To form the past participle of an -er verb, we replace the infinitive ending with -é.

Examples:

aimer → aiméto like – liked

écouter → écoutéto listen – listened

rester → restéto stay – stayed

travailler → travailléto work – worked

Note: the irregular verb aller has a regular past participle: allé

-ir Verbs

To form the past participle of an -ir verb, we replace the infinitive ending with -i.

Examples:

dormir → dormito sleep – slept

finir → finito finish – finished

partir → partito leave – left

réfléchir → réfléchito reflect – reflected

sentir → sentito feel – felt

Note: the verbs courirto run, découvrirto discover, offrirto offer, ouvrirto open, souffrirto suffer, tenirto hold and venirto come have irregular past participles.

Examples:

courir → couruto run – run

offrir → offertto offer – offered

-re Verbs

To form the past participle of an -re verb, we replace the infinitive ending with -u.

Examples:

attendre → attenduto wait – waited

répondre → réponduto answer – answered

vendre → venduto sell – sold

Note: the majority of -re verbs are irregular and thus have irregular past participles.

Examples:

connaître → connuto know – known

écrire → écritto write – written

prendre → pristo take – taken

Irregular verbs and the participe passé

Many verbs have an irregular past participle form, which must be learned by heart. See below for a list of the most common irregular past participles in French organised by ending, or go to our verb conjugator to look up the past participles of specific verbs.

Participe passé ending in -u

Many irregular verbs form their past participle with the ending -u:

Participe passé ending in -is

Several irregular verbs form their past participle with the ending -is:

Participe passé ending in -t

Many irregular verbs form their past participle with the ending -t:

Participe passé ending in -ert

Some irregular verbs form their past participle with the ending -ert:

Participe passé ending in -i

Two irregular verbs (and their related forms) form their past participle with the ending -i:

Other irregular verbs

There are four verbs that have completely irregular past participle forms:

When does the past participle agree in French?

There are some cases when the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject or object of the sentence. The past participle agrees as follows:

Generally, the past participle agrees when it is conjugated with être and stays the same when it is conjugated with avoir. However, there are some important exceptions we need to look out for.

Past participle agreement with être

When the past participle appears with the auxiliary être in a compound tense, it must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence.

Examples:

Max est rentré à la maison.Max went home.

Sa sœur est rentrée à la maison.His sister went home.

singular feminine noun: past participle + e

Les joueurs sont rentrés à la maison.The players went home.

plural masculine noun: past participle + s

Les joueuses sont rentrées à la maison.The (female) players went home.

plural feminine noun: past participle + es

Past participle agreement with pronominal verbs

All pronominal verbs are conjugated with être in compound tenses. In most cases, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject of the sentence.

Example:

Elle s’est lavée.She had a wash.

The past participle agrees because the subject and the object are the same (elle); literally: she washes herself.

Ils se sont mariés en mai.They got married in May.

The past participle agrees because the subject and the object are the same (ils). The verb is reciprocal; literally: they married each other.

However, the past participle does not agree with the subject of the sentence when the pronominal verb is followed by a direct object or another verb.

Example:

Elle s’est lavé les mains.She washed her hands.

The past participle stays the same because the subject (elle) and the object (les mains) are different.

Likewise, the past participle does not agree with an indirect object. This means that it remains the same when used with the following verbs: se téléphoner, se parler, se mentir, se plaire (complaire/déplaire), se sourire, se rire, se nuire, se succéder, se suffire, se ressembler, s’en vouloir.

Example:

Marie et Laurent se sont téléphoné. (téléphoner à)

se = indirect object

Past participle agreement with avoir

When the past participle is used with avoir in the compound tenses, it never agrees with the subject of a sentence in gender or number. However, the past participle with avoir agrees with a direct object that comes before the verb.

Examples:

Max a marqué un but. → Max l’a marqué.Max scored a goal. → Max scored it.

Max a marqué deux buts. → Max les a marqués.Max scored two goals. → Max scored them.

This happens when the direct object is a pronoun (me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les) or when the direct object is followed by a relative clause with que.

Examples:

Max les a marqués.Max scored them. (direct object pronoun)

C’est la maison que nous avons achetée.This is the house that we bought. (relative clause with que)