As you know, different verbs in the past tense take either\u00a0avoir\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0\u00eatre. <\/em>While most past participles take the verb\u00a0avoir<\/em>, there are some very common verbs that take\u00a0\u00eatre<\/em>.\u00a0You may have learned the past participles that take the verb \u00eatre\u00a0<\/em>as the mnemonic device Dr & Mrs. Vandertramp, as shown below:<\/p>\n D — devenir (to become)<\/strong><\/p>\n R — revenir (to come back)<\/strong><\/p>\n M — monter (to climb, to go up)<\/strong><\/p>\n R — rentrer (re-enter)<\/strong><\/p>\n S — sortir (to go out)<\/strong><\/p>\n V — venir (to come)<\/strong><\/p>\n A — arriver (to arrive)<\/strong><\/p>\n N — n\u00e2itre (to be born)<\/strong><\/p>\n D — descendre (to descend, to go down)<\/strong><\/p>\n E — entrer (to enter)<\/strong><\/p>\n R — retourner (to return)<\/strong><\/p>\n T — tomber (to fall)<\/strong><\/p>\n R — rester (to stay)<\/strong><\/p>\n A — aller (to go)<\/strong><\/p>\n M — mourir (to die)<\/strong><\/p>\n P — partir (to leave)<\/strong><\/p>\n If you want to say “I left at nine o’clock,” for example, you would say: “je suis parti(e<\/strong>) \u00e0 9h.”\u00a0<\/em>Whether or not you add the final “e” depends on whether the person speaking is male or female. But past participles that follow the verb\u00a0\u00eatre\u00a0<\/em>must show agreement with the pronoun. Thus, if you are talking about a group of people, you would need to make the past participle plural; for example, “We went to get ice cream,” becomes in French: “Nous sommes all\u00e9s<\/strong> chercher de la glace.<\/em>”<\/p>\n Normally, we learn that past participles that use the verb\u00a0avoir\u00a0<\/em>DO NOT need to show agreement. For example, if a woman says: “j’ai parl\u00e9 avec lui”<\/em> (I spoke with him), you should NOT put an extra “e” (denoting the female speaker) at the end of\u00a0parl\u00e9.<\/em><\/p>\n However, like many grammatical rules in French, there are exceptions to this agreement rule with past participles following\u00a0avoir.\u00a0<\/em>This is the rule: If the direct object comes before past participle, the past participle should agree with that direct object.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Here’s an example:<\/p>\n J’ai\u00a0vu une souris dans la rue hier soir (<\/em>I saw a mouse in the street last night). Here, vu<\/em> does not take on any agreement with the subject of the sentence and will remain\u00a0vu\u00a0<\/em>no matter the gender of the speaker.<\/p>\n Tu as vu cette grosse souris? Je l’ai vue<\/strong> dans la rue hier soir!\u00a0<\/em>In this example, the past participle agrees not with the subject of the sentence, but with the direct object because the direct object precedes the past participle.\u00a0<\/strong>Because the noun\u00a0souris\u00a0<\/em>is feminine, it is grammatically correct to add an “e” at the end of\u00a0vu\u00a0<\/b><\/em>so that it becomes\u00a0vue<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n This rule of agreement with past participles using\u00a0avoir\u00a0<\/em>is pretty tricky, but it’s important to know in order to be completely grammatically correct (especially when writing, since most of the time, you wouldn’t hear any difference when spoken!). Leave me a comment below with any questions or examples where you would use past participle agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today we are going to look at the verbs\u00a0avoir\u00a0and\u00a0\u00eatre\u00a0— the most common verbs in French, which are used to form the simple past tense. As you know, different verbs in the past tense take either\u00a0avoir\u00a0or\u00a0\u00eatre. While most past participles take the verb\u00a0avoir, there are some very common verbs that take\u00a0\u00eatre.\u00a0You may have learned the…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/09\/Sarah-201x300.jpg\")