Agreeing past participle with subject's gender and number with (+ être) verbs in the compound past in French (Le Passé Composé)

Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCE

Last updated: 2023-09-26

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You've seen that in compound tenses, such as Le Passé Composé (Indicatif), the majority of verbs use avoir as their auxiliary. See for example Conjugate regular -er verbs (+ avoir) in the compound past in French (Le Passé Composé).
For those verbs, the past participle never agrees with the subject.

However, it is different when it comes to verbs using être as the auxiliary in Le Passé Composé (Indicatif), such as the Conjugate coming and going verbs (+ être) in the compound past in French (Le Passé Composé) and Conjugate mourir, naître, décéder, devenir, rester (+ être) in the compound past in French (Le Passé Composé).

Learn how to agree the past participle with verbs using être as auxiliary in French

Look at these verbs using être as auxiliary in Le Passé Composé (Indicatif):

Gérard a dit: "Je suis allé en France l'année dernière."Gérard said: "I went to France last year."

Pauline a dit: "Je suis allée en France l'année dernière."Pauline said: "I went to France last year."

Anthony est devenu boulanger.Anthony became a baker.

Elle est retournée à la maison.She went back home.

Nous sommes tombés sur Jeanne en chemin.We bumped into Jeanne on the way.

Les garçons sont revenus !The boys are back!

Elles sont sorties hier.They went out yesterday.

When être is used as the auxiliary in compound tenses such as Le Passé Composé (Indicatif), the past participle must always agree in gender and number with the subject of the verb.

The endings follow this pattern:

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	---	-e
Plural	-s	-es

Remember that when the group includes men AND women, you will always use the masculine plural ending -s.

Here are some examples:

Marco et Paulo ont dit: "Nous sommes allés en France l'année dernière."Marco and Paulo said: "We went to France last year."

Julia et Émilie ont dit: "Nous sommes allées en France l'année dernière."Julia and Emilie said: "We went to France last year."

James et Lucy ont dit : "Nous sommes allés en France l'année dernière."James and Lucy said: "We went to France last year."

Case of agreement with "vous"

As you know, the French vous can be used to refer either to more than one person (plural you), or in a polite way to a single person (formal you).

With (+ être) verbs in Le Passé Composé (Indicatif), the agreement will depend on which vous is being used:

- with the plural vous, the past participle will take -s or -es depending on the gender of the people in the group it refers to:

Louis et toi, Francis, êtes allés en Italie il y a trois ans.Louis and you, Francis, went to Italy three years ago.

Isabelle et toi, Marie, êtes parties en même temps.Isabelle and you, Marie, left at the same time.

Mes sœurs et toi, Charles, êtes restés un peu plus longtemps.My sisters and you, Charles, stayed a bit longer.

- with the formal/singular vous, the past participle will remain unchanged or take an -e depending on the gender of the person it refers to:

Monsieur Dupont, vous êtes né en 1958.Mister Dupont, you were born in 1958.

Mademoiselle Rose, vous êtes devenue une charmante jeune fille.Miss Rose, you became a charming young lady.

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Examples and resources

Alice est restée chez elle hier soir.Alice stayed home last night.