French Past Participle Agreement: Rules, Examples and Common Mistakes

French past participles (parti, écrit, vendu) sometimes take the endings -e, -s or -es to agree in gender and number with another word in the sentence. Whether they agree depends on three things: whether the participle is used alone, which auxiliary it follows (être or avoir), and, with avoir, whether a direct object comes before the verb. At C1 you are expected to apply these rules accurately in writing, including the tricky cases with pronominal verbs and infinitives.

The three core rules

Situation	Agrees with	Example
Participle used alone (like an adjective)	the noun it describes	Les portes fermées à clé.
With être (including the passive)	the subject	Elles sont arrivées tard.
With avoir	the direct object, only if it comes before the verb	Les lettres que j’ai écrites.

The doors locked. / They arrived late. / The letters I wrote.

With avoir, the participle never agrees with the subject:

• Mes sœurs ont mangé. — My sisters have eaten.
• Mes sœurs ont mangé les gâteaux. — My sisters ate the cakes. (object after the verb: no agreement)
• Les gâteaux, mes sœurs les ont mangés. — The cakes, my sisters ate them. (object before: agreement)

These rules apply in every compound tense, not only the passé composé:

• La décision qu’ils avaient prise a surpris tout le monde. — The decision they had taken surprised everyone.
• Dès que les invitées seront parties, on rangera. — As soon as the guests have left, we’ll tidy up.

Endings and pronunciation

Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural
fini	finie	finis	finies
vendu	vendue	vendus	vendues
pris	prise	pris	prises
écrit	écrite	écrits	écrites
ouvert	ouverte	ouverts	ouvertes

With participles in -é, -i, -u, agreement is silent: fini and finies sound identical. With participles ending in a consonant (-is, -it, -ert, -int), the feminine is audible: pris [pʁi] vs prise [pʁiz], fait [fɛ] vs faite [fɛt]. This is why careful speakers say la lettre que j’ai écrite with a pronounced t — and why mistakes here are noticeable in oral exams.

Avoir: spotting a preceding direct object

The whole difficulty with avoir is identifying a direct object (COD) placed before the verb. It usually appears in one of these forms:

Trigger	Example	Translation
Object pronoun le, la, l’, les, me, te, nous, vous	Cette série, je l’ai regardée en un week-end.	That series, I watched it in a weekend.
Relative pronoun que	Les solutions qu’elle a proposées sont réalistes.	The solutions she proposed are realistic.
quel(s), quelle(s) + noun	Quelles villes avez-vous visitées ?	Which cities did you visit?
lequel, laquelle…	Laquelle as-tu choisie ?	Which one did you choose?
combien de + noun	Combien de pages as-tu lues ?	How many pages have you read?

With me, te, nous, vous, you need to know who the pronoun refers to:

• Claire, je t’ai attendue une heure. — Claire, I waited for you for an hour.
• Le directeur nous a reçus, mon collègue et moi. — The director received us, my colleague and me.

If combien is separated from its noun, there is no agreement: Combien as-tu lu de pages ?

For a refresher on choosing que versus qui or dont, see our guide to French relative pronouns.

When the participle stays invariable with avoir

Several cases look like a preceding object but do not trigger agreement.

The pronoun en

After en, the participle normally stays invariable:

• Des fraises ? J’en ai acheté au marché. — Strawberries? I bought some at the market.

Indirect objects

Lui, leur and indirect me, te, nous, vous never cause agreement:

• Mes parents ? Je leur ai téléphoné hier. — My parents? I phoned them yesterday. (téléphoner à)

If you mix up direct and indirect pronouns, our guide to object pronouns, y and en covers the distinction.

Impersonal verbs

• Les tempêtes qu’il y a eu cet hiver. — The storms there were this winter.
• Les efforts qu’il a fallu pour réussir. — The effort it took to succeed.

Verbs of measure used intransitively

Coûter, valoir, peser, mesurer, durer, vivre, courir do not agree when the preceding que expresses a quantity (a price, a duration, a weight). They agree when used transitively in a figurative sense:

• Les trois heures que j’ai couru. — The three hours I ran. (duration)
• Les risques que j’ai courus. — The risks I ran. (real direct object)
• Les mille euros que ce vélo m’a coûté. — The thousand euros this bike cost me.
• Les efforts que ce projet m’a coûtés. — The effort this project cost me.

Neuter l’

When l’ stands for a whole idea or clause, it is neuter: La réunion a été plus longue que je ne l’avais prévu. — The meeting was longer than I had expected.

Être verbs and verbs that switch auxiliary

Verbs of movement and change of state conjugated with être agree with the subject: Elles sont nées à Lyon et sont revenues y vivre. — They were born in Lyon and came back to live there.

Six verbs can also take avoir when they have a direct object: sortir, rentrer, monter, descendre, passer, retourner. The agreement rule then follows the auxiliary:

• Elle est sortie à minuit. — She went out at midnight.
• Elle a sorti la poubelle. — She took the bin out.
• La poubelle, elle l’a sortie. — The bin, she took it out.

Pronominal verbs

Pronominal verbs use être, but the agreement logic is that of avoir: ask whether the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nous, vous) is a direct or indirect object.

Type	Rule	Example
Pronoun is the COD	agreement	Elle s’est lavée. — She washed.
A COD follows the verb	no agreement	Elle s’est lavé les mains. — She washed her hands.
The COD comes before	agreement with that COD	Les mains qu’elle s’est lavées.
Pronoun is indirect (à quelqu’un)	no agreement	Ils se sont parlé. — They spoke to each other.
Inherently pronominal verb	agreement with subject	Elles se sont souvenues de tout. — They remembered everything.
Passive meaning	agreement with subject	Ces appartements se sont vendus vite. — These flats sold quickly.

Verbs that take à — and therefore stay invariable when reciprocal — are worth memorising: se parler, se téléphoner, se sourire, se plaire, se mentir, se nuire, se succéder, se ressembler, s’écrire, se dire, se demander, se rendre (as in se rendre compte).

• Les présidents se sont succédé. — The presidents followed one another.
• Elles se sont rendu compte de leur erreur. — They realised their mistake. (compte is the COD)

Inherently pronominal verbs (s’évanouir, s’enfuir, se moquer, s’absenter, se méfier) agree with the subject. The one exception is s’arroger: Ils se sont arrogé des privilèges. — They claimed privileges for themselves.

For the basics of these verbs, see our guide to pronominal (reflexive) verbs.

Participle followed by an infinitive

Fait + infinitive: always invariable

• La maison qu’ils ont fait construire. — The house they had built.
• Elle s’est fait opérer. — She had an operation.

Laissé + infinitive

The 1990 spelling reform recommends treating laissé like fait: invariable. Je les ai laissé partir. — I let them leave. The traditional agreement (laissés) is still accepted.

Verbs of perception

With voir, entendre, regarder, sentir, the participle agrees if the preceding object performs the action of the infinitive:

• Les enfants que j’ai vus jouer. — The children I saw playing. (the children play)
• Les arbres que j’ai vu abattre. — The trees I saw being cut down. (the trees don’t cut)

Implied infinitive

Dû, pu, voulu, cru, pensé stay invariable when an infinitive is understood: J’ai fait toutes les démarches que j’ai pu. — I took all the steps I could (take).

Common mistakes

• ✗ Les fleurs que j’ai acheté. → ✓ Les fleurs que j’ai achetées. — que is a preceding direct object.
• ✗ J’ai lues les articles. → ✓ J’ai lu les articles. — the object comes after the verb.
• ✗ Ma mère a partie. → ✓ Ma mère est partie. — partir takes être and agrees with the subject.
• ✗ Elles se sont téléphonées. → ✓ Elles se sont téléphoné. — téléphoner à: the pronoun is indirect.
• ✗ Elle s’est coupée le doigt. → ✓ Elle s’est coupé le doigt. — the COD le doigt follows the verb.
• ✗ Elle s’est faite licencier. → ✓ Elle s’est fait licencier. — fait + infinitive is invariable.
• ✗ Je leur ai envoyés un message. → ✓ Je leur ai envoyé un message. — leur is indirect.
• ✗ Les chaleurs qu’il a faites. → ✓ Les chaleurs qu’il a fait. — impersonal verbs never agree.

Quick check

Write the correct form of the participle.

1. Les photos que tu m’as (envoyer) sont superbes.
2. Elles se sont (écrire) pendant des années.
3. Ma sœur ? Je l’ai (voir) hier soir.
4. La robe qu’elle s’est (faire) faire est magnifique.
5. Ces romans se sont (vendre) à des millions d’exemplaires.

Answers: 1. envoyées (preceding COD que = les photos) 2. écrit (écrire à: indirect pronoun) 3. vue (l’ = ma sœur, feminine) 4. fait (fait + infinitive is invariable) 5. vendus (passive meaning, agrees with the subject)

Next step

Now apply the rules under exam conditions: test yourself with our C1 Past Participle Agreement test, and note which category each mistake belongs to — preceding object, pronominal verb or infinitive. If the auxiliary choice itself still causes hesitation, go back to our Passé Composé guide before retaking the test.