Peer-editing the class blog: past participle agreement
Karim has 15 minutes to peer-edit the class blog post about the school trip to Paris before it goes live, and the teacher is unavailable. His friend Aisha's draft contains five sentences with past participles: 'Les photos que j'ai pris hier sont sur le blog', 'Nous nous avons levés à cinq heures', 'Ma correspondante s'est rendue compte de mon erreur', 'Elle s'est lavée les mains avant le dîner', and 'Nous nous sommes écrit trois emails pendant la semaine'. Karim is convinced that at least three of them are wrong but cannot say which, and he has heard the rule 'les verbes pronominaux s'accordent avec le sujet' quoted as if it were absolute. He also vaguely remembers something about direct objects coming before the verb, but he thinks that only applies to 'avoir'. The blog is read by the partner school in Nantes, so a visible error is embarrassing rather than merely costly in marks.
1. Which of the five sentences is correct, and what grammatical principle explains why the others fail?
Read the worked answer
Only Nous nous sommes écrit trois emails pendant la semaine is correct. The verb is écrire à quelqu'un: the reflexive pronoun nous is an indirect object (we wrote to each other), and a pronominal verb agrees only when the reflexive pronoun is a direct object. So the participle stays invariable: écrit.
The other four fail for three different reasons, which is exactly why a single memorised slogan is useless here:
- Les photos que j'ai pris - auxiliary avoir with a direct object (que = les photos) placed before the participle: agreement required → prises.
- Nous nous avons levés - pronominal verbs are conjugated with être, never avoir → Nous nous sommes levés.
- Ma correspondante s'est rendue compte - in se rendre compte de, compte is the direct object and follows the verb, so no agreement → s'est rendu compte.
- Elle s'est lavée les mains - the direct object les mains follows the participle, so no agreement → s'est lavé les mains.
The reliable test is not 'is it pronominal?' but 'what is the direct object, and where is it?'
2. Karim thinks the 'direct object before the verb' rule only applies to 'avoir'. Correct him, using Aisha's own sentences as evidence.
Read the worked answer
The rule is about the participle, not about the auxiliary. With être, the participle agrees with the subject in ordinary verbs (elle est partie), and in pronominal verbs it agrees with the subject only when the reflexive pronoun functions as the direct object (elle s'est levée - she lifted herself). When another direct object intervenes, or when the reflexive pronoun is indirect, the participle stays invariable.
Aisha's sentences show both sides. Elle s'est lavée would be correct alone, because se is the direct object. Add les mains after the verb and the direct object is now les mains, which follows - so s'est lavé les mains. Likewise nous nous sommes écrit: écrire à makes nous indirect, so no agreement.
So the accurate formulation is: the participle agrees with a direct object that precedes it, whichever auxiliary is used; with être the subject counts as a preceding direct object only in specific constructions. Karim's version is half the rule applied to the wrong half of the grammar.
3. Rewrite 'Elle s'est lavée les mains avant le dîner' and 'Ma correspondante s'est rendue compte de mon erreur' correctly, and explain in one sentence each how you decided.
Read the worked answer
Elle s'est lavé les mains avant le dîner. I asked what the direct object of laver is: it is les mains, which stands after the participle, so agreement is blocked. The reflexive pronoun se is now the indirect object (she washed the hands to herself).
Ma correspondante s'est rendu compte de mon erreur. I asked whether se rendre compte is one of the fixed expressions in which the reflexive verb has a idiomatic meaning; here compte is the direct object of the whole expression and sits after the participle, so no agreement occurs. The contrast case is Elle s'est rendue à Paris, where se is the direct object ('she rendered herself') and agreement is obligatory.
Both corrections follow the same question, applied to two very different structures: locate the direct object and check its position relative to the participle.