French/Grammar/Verbs/Past participle

French

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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 participles
Verb	Past participle
atteindre	atteint
avoir	eu
boire	bu
conduire	conduit
connaître	connu
construire	construit
courir	couru
couvrir	couvert
craindre	craint
croire	cru
devoir	dû
dire	dit
écrire	écrit
être	été
faire	fait
falloir	fallu
instruire	instruit
joindre	joint
lire	lu
mettre	mis
mourir	mort
offrir	offert
ouvrir	ouvert
naître	né
paraître	paru
peindre	peint
pleuvoir	plu
pouvoir	pu
prendre	pris
produire	produit
recevoir	reçu
savoir	su
souffrir	souffert
suivre	suivi
tenir	tenu
venir	venu
vivre	vécu
voir	vu
vouloir	voulu

Past participle agreement
Gender	Number	Add
masculine	singular	-
masculine	plural	-s
feminine	singular	-e
feminine	plural	-es

Tenses and moods

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