411 REFERENCE · Wikibooks
French/Grammar/Verbs/Past participle
Reference material by Wikibooks contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
Usage
This is added after an auxiliary verb for all the composed tenses:
Indicatif passé composé
Indicatif plus-que-parfait
Indicatif passé antérieur
Indicatif futur antérieur
Subjonctif passé
Subjonctif plus-que-parfait
Conditionnel passé
Formation
For a regular -er verb, the past participle is determined by replacing the -er with é.
For a regular -ir verb, the past participle is determined by removing the final r.
For a regular -re verb, the past participle is determined by replacing the -re with u.
Irregular verbs have irregular past participles, as shown by the table.
For verbs with the auxiliary verb être, the past participle must agree with the subject. For verbs with the auxiliary avoir, the participle never agree with the subject, but with a possible direct complement, if it is written before the verb. For example, in the sentence elles sont arrivées au café, since the subject is both feminine and plural, the participle arrive has an "e" and an "s" to agree with the subject elles, because it's written before the verb, but in the sentence elle a bu le café, the participle bu does not agree with elle.
The table below shows additions to the normal past participle that must be made based on the gender and number of the subject.
Irregular past participlesVerbPast participleatteindreatteintavoireuboirebuconduireconduitconnaîtreconnuconstruireconstruitcourircourucouvrircouvertcraindrecraintcroirecrudevoirdûdireditécrireécritêtreétéfairefaitfalloirfalluinstruireinstruitjoindrejointlirelumettremismourirmortoffriroffertouvrirouvertnaîtrenéparaîtreparupeindrepeintpleuvoirplupouvoirpuprendreprisproduireproduitrecevoirreçusavoirsusouffrirsouffertsuivresuivitenirtenuvenirvenuvivrevécuvoirvuvouloirvoulu
Past participle agreement Gender Number Addmasculinesingular-masculineplural-sfemininesingular-efeminineplural-es