Agreement of past participle with avoir
a. A past participle preceded by any tense of the auxiliary avoir, and not preceded by a direct object, is invariable.
Elle a chanté une chanson à l'école. She sang a song at school. Nous avons acheté les livres. We bought the books.
b. Preceded by a direct object, the past participle agrees with it, or its antecedent, in number and gender.
Où sont les plumes que j'ai achetées ? Where are the pens that I bought? Votre mère les a données à Jean. Your mother gave them to John.
Voici les livres que j'avais perdus. Here are the books I had lost.1
36. Agreement of past participle with être. — The past participle preceded by the auxiliary être (except in the case of reflexive verbs) agrees with the subject in number and gender.
Elle est venue avec son père. She came with her father.
Les hommes étaient partis. The men had left.
37. Agreement of past participle with verbs of reflexive form.
— The peculiarity of verbs of reflexive form is that they require the auxiliary être in the formation of their compound tenses, and yet agree only with the direct object, as if they were conjugated with avoir.
a. There is an agreement with the preceding object if it be direct.
Elles se sont lavées ce matin. They washed themselves this morning.
La lune s'est levée tard. The moon rose late.
Les femmes se sont embrassées. The women kissed each other.
1 Observe that the relative is never omitted as in English.
b. There is no agreement if the direct object does not precede the auxiliary verb.
Elles se sont lavé les mains. They washed their hands.
Marie s'est coupé le doigt. Mary cut her finger.
Les femmes se sont écrit. The women wrote to each other.
38. The simple relative pronouns. — The simple relative pronouns should be considered from the grammatical viewpoint rather than from that of meaning.
a. As subject of verb, who, that, which are qui.
La femme qui chante est ma mère. The woman who sings is my mother. Le chat qui gratte est noir. The cat that is scratching is black.
La poire qui est tombée est mûre. The pear which has fallen is ripe.
b. As object of verb, whom, that, which are que.
La dame que vous voyez est ma The lady whom you see is my aunt.
tante.
Le cheval que vous aimez est noir. The horse that you like is black.
La plume que vous cherchez est per- The pen which you are looking for
due. is lost.
39. Irregular verbs. — Study the irregular verbs écrire, to write; décrire, to describe; s'en aller, to go away.
EXERCISE
(a) i. The teacher cut her hand this morning. 2. Here are the things that I bought last evening, while you were at the theater. 3. The men had already risen when I called them this morning. 4. Here is the pen that wrote the new law. 5. The man who spoke to me as we were going to school is my uncle. 6. The sun generally sets early in winter when the days are short. 7. Let us go away ; the boys are smoking too much. 8. To whom was Mary writing a long letter yesterday afternoon? 9. My mother had gone downstairs to the kitchen. 10. Let him go away when he finishes his work.
{b) n. Get up, John, the bell is ringing. 12. She had awakened several times during the night. 13. I should describe her to you if I had the time. 14. Those apples had fallen from the old tree. 15. There is the dog that he struck with the stick.
16. Mary had left early in the afternoon, to x visit her sick friend.
17. The boy is rising now. 18. She had come to church with her brother. 19. Where are the boys whom you called at three o'clock? 20. She washed her face and hands in the bathroom.
(c) 21. Describe the place to me. 22. Is my mother writing a letter for the old lady? 23. My aunt cut herself with the knife. 24. There are the letters that he wrote when he was in France. 25. My mother went upstairs to the bedroom.
