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Lesson 44 – Past participle agreements with Avoir in French

Geethan

  1. theory
    rule
    exceptions to the rule : 3 cases
    exceptions to the exception to the rule
  2. exercises 🔥
  3. comments

Theory

a) rule

the past participle of verbs conjugated with the auxiliary “avoir” never agrees with the subject IF no direct object complement (COD) precedes it

huit robots mécatroniques ont démonté le sofa

eight mechatronic robots dismantled the sofa

 

b) exception to the rule : 3 cases

  1. the COD is a relative pronoun

 ils ont suivi les ordres que Sarah leur avait donnés

they followed the orders that Sarah had given them

 

  1. the COD is a personal pronoun

 CL4 a raconté deux blagues et Tim les a répétées

CL4 told two jokes and Tim repeated them

 

  1. a question or exclamation relates to the COD

quels robots humanoïdes avez-vous frottés ?

which humanoid robots did you rub ?

que de beaux ressorts de valve ils ont commandés !

what beautiful valve springs they ordered !

 

c) exceptions to the exception to the rule

when the COD is the pronoun en, the participle always remains in the masculine singular

des batteries en nickel-zinc, nous en avons eu

nickel-zinc batteries, we had some of them

the past participle of impersonal verbs is always invariable

ce sont les robots zappeur d’Ebola qu’il aurait suffi d’utiliser

these are the Ebola-zapping robots that just needed to be used

Exercises

Results

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#1. he made some proposals that Mr. X accepted

#2. ... we had carried so many bottles !

#3. Tim made a pancake and Henriette sprinkled it with pink icing sugar

#4. these people, we already talked a lot about them ...

#5. these are the candles that would have been needed, not the others

Terminer

 

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