By the end of this lesson you'll be able to use all the pronouns in this unit in the past, and make the participle agree when it needs to.
Before the auxiliary
In the passé composé, every pronoun goes directly before the auxiliary, the form of avoir or être. That goes for all the pronouns you've met, including the pronoun en and the indirect object pronouns.
Je l'ai vu.
I saw him.
Elle lui a parlé.
She spoke to him.
Nous y sommes allés.
We went there.
J'en ai mangé.
I ate some.
Il m'a appelé.
He called me. (said by a man)
Ne…pas wraps around the pronoun and the auxiliary. The participle comes after pas.
Je ne l'ai pas vu.
I didn't see him.
Questions use intonation, as usual: Tu l'as vu ? (Did you see him?), Elle t'a téléphoné ? (Did she phone you? said to a woman).
The agreement rule
You've learned that with avoir, the participle doesn't change. The lesson on the passé composé with avoir promised one exception, and here it is.
With avoir, the participle agrees with a direct object that comes before the verb. That means le, la, l', les, me, te, nous and vous, when they're direct objects.
Add -e for a feminine object, -s for a plural one, and -es for a feminine plural one.
| Who or what is seen | Sentence |
|---|---|
| Paul (masculine singular) | Je l'ai vu. (I saw him.) |
| Marie (feminine singular) | Je l'ai vue. (I saw her.) |
| Paul et Marc (masculine plural) | Je les ai vus. (I saw them.) |
| Anne et Léa (feminine plural) | Je les ai vues. (I saw them.) |
Il m'a vue.
He saw me. (said by a woman)
Il nous a vus.
He saw us. (a group of men, or a mixed group)
Where there's no agreement
The participle doesn't agree with these.
- Lui and leur are indirect, so nothing changes: Je lui ai parlé (I spoke to him).
- Y causes no agreement: J'y ai mangé (I ate there).
- En causes no agreement: J'en ai mangé (I ate some), J'en ai pris trois (I took three).
Me, te, nous and vous can also be indirect objects, with verbs like téléphoner à and parler à. Then there's no agreement, even for a woman: Elle m'a téléphoné (She phoned me), Il t'a parlé (He spoke to you). Compare Il m'a vue (He saw me, said by a woman), where me is a direct object and the participle agrees.
With verbs that take être, the rule is the one you know from the lesson on the passé composé with être: the participle agrees with the subject. So Marie y est allée agrees with Marie. Reflexive verbs follow the lesson on reflexive verbs in the passé composé, and nothing changes there.
Can you hear it?
With most participles, agreement only shows in writing. Vu and vue sound the same.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| vu / vue | vew | seen (masculine / feminine) |
| lu / lue | lew | read (masculine / feminine) |
| bu / bue | bew | drunk (masculine / feminine) |
| mangé / mangée | mahn-ZHAY | eaten (masculine / feminine) |
| fini / finie | fee-NEE | finished (masculine / feminine) |
With participles ending in a consonant, you can hear the feminine, because the consonant gets pronounced.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| pris / prise | pree / preez | taken (masculine / feminine) |
| mis / mise | mee / meez | put (masculine / feminine) |
| fait / faite | feh / fet | done, made (masculine / feminine) |
| écrit / écrite | ay-KREE / ay-KREET | written (masculine / feminine) |
| dit / dite | dee / deet | said (masculine / feminine) |
La lettre ? Je l'ai écrite.
The letter? I wrote it.
La clé ? Je l'ai prise.
The key? I took it.
La cuisine ? Je l'ai faite.
The cooking? I did it.
En français
- Tu as vu Marie ? (Did you see Marie?)
- Oui, je l'ai vue samedi. (Yes, I saw her on Saturday.)
- Tu lui as parlé ? (Did you speak to her?)
- Oui, je lui ai parlé. (Yes, I spoke to her.)
- Et les clés ? (And the keys?)
- Je les ai prises. (I took them.)
What's next
Next, the review of this unit brings together everything you've learned about pronouns.