Guide to French Verb Agreement
In French, verbs must agree with their subjects in number and person, and in certain cases, with gender as well. This can affect everything from simple present tense conjugations to more complex structures like the passé composé.
Understanding these rules is key to achieving accuracy and fluency in French. This guide will walk you through the essential principles of verb agreement in various tenses and moods.
Contents
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What Is French Verb Agreement?
French verb agreement refers to the rules that dictate how verbs must change their form to align with their subjects in number (singular or plural) and person (first, second or third).
Additionally, in certain tenses, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject or a preceding direct object.
Verb Conjugation
In all tenses, French verbs must agree with the subject in both number and person. Each subject pronoun has a specific verb ending.
The process of making the verb ending correspond to the appropriate pronoun (plus the correct tense and mood) is called conjugation. Here are some examples in the present tense:
Pauline travaille à la banque. (Pauline works at the bank.)
Ses enfants ne travaillent pas encore. (Her children don’t work yet.)
In the first sentence, the verb travaille agrees with the subject Pauline, whereas in the second sentence the verb changes to travaillent for the plural subject ses enfants.
Check out our comprehensive guide on French conjugation for more:
Your Complete Guide to French Verb Conjugation | FluentU French Blog
French verb conjugation is a crucial skill needed for all French conversations. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover how to conjugate for different verb endings, in…
Verb Agreement in Simple Tenses
In French, simple tenses are those that are formed by conjugating the verb directly without the use of auxiliary verbs. These tenses are used to express various timeframes and moods. Here are the main simple tenses and moods:
| Tense/Mood | Example |
|---|---|
| Présent (present) | Je parle (I speak) |
| Imparfait (imperfect) | Je parlais (I was speaking / I used to speak) |
| Futur simple (simple future) | Je parlerai (I will speak) |
| Passé simple (simple past/past historic) | Je parlai (I spoke) |
| Conditionnel présent (present conditional) | Je parlerais (I would speak) |
| Subjonctif présent (present subjunctive) | Que je parle (That I speak) |
In these tenses, verbs are conjugated directly and typically do not involve agreement in gender with the subject. For example, let’s look at the verb jouer (to play) in the imperfect tense with a few different subjects:
Je jouais du piano. (I used to play piano.)
Il jouait du piano. (He used to play piano.)
Elle jouait du piano. (She used to play piano.)
Ils jouaient du piano. (They used to play piano.)
As you can see, the verb ending changes based on the subject and whether it’s singular (I, he, she) or plural (they), but not based on gender. The verb form for “he” and “she” are the same.
Verb Agreement in Compound Tenses
Compound tenses are verb tenses that consist of two parts: an auxiliary verb (either avoir or être) and a past participle.
The auxiliary verb is conjugated according to the subject, while the past participle remains unchanged, except when it agrees with the subject or direct object in certain cases. Compound tenses in French include:
| Tense/Mood | Example |
|---|---|
| Passé composé (present perfect) | J'ai parlé (I have spoken) |
| Plus-que-parfait (pluperfect) | J'avais parlé (I had spoken) |
| Futur antérieur (future perfect) | J'aurai parlé (I will have spoken) |
| Conditionnel passé (past conditional) | J'aurais parlé (I would have spoken) |
| Subjonctif passé (past subjunctive) | Que j'aie parlé (That I have spoken) |
| Passé antérieur (past anterior) | J'eus parlé (I had spoken) |
| Subjonctif plus-que-parfait (pluperfect subjunctive) | Que j'eusse parlé (That I had spoken) |
Verb Agreement with Être
When using the auxiliary verb être in compound tenses, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject. Let’s look at an example in the passé composé:
Il est allé au marché. (He went to the market.)
If the subject is feminine, add an-e to the past participle:
Elle est allée au marché. (She went to the market.)
If the subject is plural (and masculine or mixed-gender), add an -s to the past participle:
Charles et Anna sont allés au marché. (Charles and Anna went to the market.
And if the subject is both feminine and plural, add -es:
Julia et Anna sont allées au marché. (Julia and Anna went to the market.)
It’s important to note that the subjects je (I) and tu (you) can either be masculine or feminine, as can nous (we) and vous (you). The past participle must agree accordingly. Here are some examples:
Je suis parti — I left (male speaker)
Je suis partie — I left (female speaker)
Tu es resté — You stayed (addressing a male)
Tu es restée — You stayed (addressing a female)
On (we/one) can either be masculine or feminine and singular or plural, depending on who it refers to. It can be used to replace the subject nous (we) in informal speeches or it can represent an indefinite subject.
When on represents an indefinite subject to speak in a general way, we use the masculine singular agreement:
On est fatigué après un marathon. — One is tired after a marathon.
If on replaces nous (we) to speak in a more informal way, it represents a group of people and requires agreement with the plural:
On est allés au cinéma hier soir. — We went to the movies last night. (referring to a group of males)
On est allées au cinéma hier soir. — We went to the movies last night. (referring to a group of females)
Verb Agreement with Avoir
When using avoir as the auxiliary verb, the past participle generally does not agree with the subject. For example:
J’ai mangé la pomme. (I ate the apple.)
Il a mangé la pomme. (He ate the apple.)
Elle a mangé la pomme. (She ate the apple.)
Nous avons mangé les pommes. (We ate the apple.)
However, if there’s a direct object preceding the verb, the past participle agrees with that object:
La pomme que j’ai mangée était délicieuse. (The apple that I ate was delicious.)
La pomme qu’il a mangée était délicieuse. (The apple that he ate was delicious.)
In these examples, the past participle (mangée) agrees with the feminine singular object (la pomme), not with the subject. If we make the object plural (les pommes), the verb form must also be plural (mangées):
Les pommes que j’ai mangées étaient délicieuses. (The apples that I ate were delicious.)
Verb Agreement with Reflexive Verbs
The rule we just went over applies to reflexive verbs as well. When using reflexive verbs in compound tenses, the past participle must agree with the direct object if it precedes the verb. For example:
Elle s’est lavée. (She washed herself.)
Here, the past participle agrees with the reflexive pronoun, which is also the direct object. If the direct object comes after the verb, then there’s no agreement:
Elle s’est lavé les mains. (She washed her hands.)
Compound Verbs with Multiple Auxiliaries
In complex sentences involving multiple auxiliaries or verbs, the past participle agrees with the nearest preceding direct object or subject as required:
Il est parti avec les clés que je lui avais données. (He left with the keys I had given him.)
In this example, parti is used with the auxiliary verb est (from être) to form the passé composé. It agrees with the subject il (he) in gender and number. Since il is singular and masculine, the past participle is also in the masculine singular form: Il est parti.
Données is used with the auxiliary verb avais (from avoir) in the past perfect tense. It agrees with the direct object les clés (the keys) because the direct object precedes the verb. Since les clés is plural and feminine, the past participle donné becomes données to agree: les clés que je lui avais données.
French verb agreement is an essential component of mastering the language. While it may seem overwhelming at first, with practice it will start to feel more natural.
You can get familiar with French verb agreement by consuming native content like French movies or TV shows. For learner support, you can use an immersive language learning program like FluentU.
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