Conjugate reflexive verbs (+être) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past)

Hi Ann,

Could you point me towards the specific challenge you are referring to?

Hi Pauline,

"Vous" can be either singular or plural. In this respect it is very much like the English "you". If you use "vous" as a polite form of the 2nd person singular you must also match anything that depends on it to be in singular as well. The same goes for "vous" in the 2nd person plural.

Vous vous êtes bien amusé? -- Did you enjoy yourself? (addressed at one person).
Vous vous êtes bien amusés? -- Did you enjoy yourselves? (addressed to a group).
Vous vous êtes bien amusées? -- Did you enjoy yourseves? (addressed to an all female group).

Note that even in English you would use "yourself" if "you" stood for a single person and "yourselves" in case of a group of persons. Not so much different than French, eh?

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Sometimes it's a matter of context and if don't have all the information, you may not know.   For example "Je vous vois". You don't know if I see one or more than one person.  Without more information, you just don't know. And that's OK.  Always look for clues such as plural adjectives.

Hi Pauline - if you mean in a kwiz question, then it should be either clear from the context of the french or english, or specified explicitly in the hint if not.

If you mean in conversation, then it's usually evident from the context. 

Nous nous sommes brossés. Or alternatively, for an all female group: Nous nous sommes brossées  

-- Chris (not a native speaker). 

Nous nous sommes brossés. Or alternatively, for an all female group: Nous nous sommes brossées  

-- Chris (not a native speaker). 

Hi Deborah.  This caught me out too.  But I think the Kwiz answer (full answer: "Nous nous sommes brossé les cheveux") is correct.  According to e.g. http://la-conjugaison.nouvelobs.com/regles/orthographe/l-accord-du-participe-passe-des-verbes-pronominaux-188.php there is no agreement of the past participle with the subject when a direct object follows.  They give the example of "Ils se sont lavé les mains".  This would seem to apply here also.

Perhaps there is a lesson on this that I haven't found.  If not, it would be nice to have one.

ps. I read a recent article where it said that French school kids spend 80 hours on average learning the rules for past participle agreement!

Hi Deborah, I had this same question. Did a little research online, and it turns out there is agreement with the past participle IF the reflexive pronoun is a direct object of the verb, as in "Nous nous sommes habillés." But when the reflexive pronoun is an indirect object, as in "Il se sont acheté un chien" there is no agreement. The answer is here in this link under #5: http://www.leaflanguages.org/french-grammar-reflexive-verbs-passe-compose-past-tense/

I had the same problem. An explanation of this should be added to the lesson above. 

Hi Philippa - it depends where you mean from. Your recommended lessons are in your studyplan on your dashboard, and when you open a lesson from there, you can also navigate forward and backwards to the other lessons. If you have opened a lesson from a kwiz report using the "explain this" button, just close the lesson to go back.

Does this answer your question?

Hi Paul,

I believe you are confusing the verb with the past participle. Let's take a look:

Alice s'est bien amusée. -- Alice had a lot of fun.

The verb is "est", which is the third person singular and hence agrees with Alice, the subject. The verb always needs to agree with the subject of the sentence, no matter what.

The participle in the example is "amusée". In the case of composite tenses which have être as their conjugated verb (as in this example), the participle needs to match the verb in number (singular) and gender (female), therfore you use "amusée".

Jean et Marc, vous vous êtes bien amusés?

Another example of the same kind: Jean et Marc are the subject in the second person plural and hence referred to as "vous". The verb (êtes) is matched to it. In the particular case of passeé composé with être as the conjugated verb, the participle needs to match the subject in gender and number: amusés. Another example, this time with avoir instead of être as the conjugated verb.

J'ai mangé du pain. -- I ate some bread.

Again, the verb "ai" is matched to the subject "je". The past participle "mangé", however, is not matched because the conjugated verb is avoir and not être.

With this clarification you should be able to reconcile the two explanations.

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Hi Paul,

can you point to the contradiction you found, specificially? It would help me answer your question.

-- Chris.

Hi Mary,

conversational past is the tense you use in conversations when talking about some event that happened in the past.
This is to be contrastet to passé simple which fulfills this function but not on a conversational level but on a literary level.
The imparfait tense is different because it serves a different purpose and pertains to repeated or habitual actions in the past.

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Bonjour Mary !

Chris is absolutely right :)
Here are links to our glossary descriptions of these 3 past tenses to help you distinguish them:
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/glossary/verb-tense-mood/the-french-simple-past-le-passe-compose

https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/glossary/verb-tense-mood/the-french-simple-past-le-passe-simple

https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/glossary/verb-tense-mood/the-french-continuous-past-and-past-habit-l-imparfait

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !

Bonjour Meghna ! Yes, both versions are acceptable here, depending on whether you're addressing one person formally, or several people. Have a look at our related lesson: Agreeing past participle with subject's gender and number with (+ être) verbs in Le Passé Composé Bonnes Fêtes !

Bonjour Ian, That's right. Whatever vous stands for is what determines what agreement is needed. Vous = Monsieur Martin = no agreement Vous = Monsieur et Madame Martin = plural agreement Vous = Christine et Sandrine = plural feminine agreement

Well what about vous vous etes cache?

Bonjour Orietta ! It's the same explanation: Vous = Monsieur Martin = "vous vous êtes caché" Vous = Madame Martin = "vous vous êtes cachée" Vous = Monsieur et Madame Martin = "vous vous êtes cachés" Vous = Christine et Sandrine = "vous vous êtes cachées" À bientôt !