Agreement of Past Participles of PRONOMINAL VERBS

PRONOMINAL VERBS which are either REFLEXIVE or RECIPROCAL are conjugated with ÊTRE.

II.      Reciprocal verbs

Reciprocal verbs indicate an action two or more subjects do to or for one another. The involvement of more than one person implies that subjects of sentences are always in the plural form. The agreement rules which apply to the reflexive verbs apply also to this category of verbs.

Examples of reciprocal verbs in the passé composé follow:

Vous vous êtes marié(e)(s) l'été dernier?

(Vous AVEZ marié QUI? VOUS; so VOUS is the direct object which replaces 'l'un, l'autre', and the past participle 'marié' must agree with it in gender -- masculine or feminine -- and in number -- plural = mariés).

Ils se sont connus à l'école secondaire.

(Ils ONT connu QUI? SE; so SE is the direct object which replaces 'l'un, l'autre', and the past participle 'connu' must agree with it in gender -- masculine -- and in number -- plural = connus).

Elles se sont téléphoné hier soir et se sont parlé pendant deux heures.

In the first clause, if we ask the question: Elles ont téléphoné QUI? no answer is provided, because ON TÉLÉPHONE À QUELQU'UN in French, then SE is an indirect complement, therefore, no agreement takes place. The same happens in the second clause, given that ON PARLE À QUELQU'UN, so SE is an indirect object which brings no change to the past participle.

REMEMBER that besides these two verbs, others such as SE DIRE, SE DEMANDER, S'ÉCRIRE, SE SOURIRE, etc. have an indirect reflexive pronoun. Supplementary examples are given here:

Ils se sont dit des bêtises.

If we ask the question: Ils ont dit QUOI? The answer is: LES BÊTISES, therefore, the direct object follows the verb. The reflexive pronoun SE is an indirect object: ON DIT des choses À QUELQU'UN. No agreement takes place.

Nous nous sommes demandé ce qu'il allait faire.

If we ask the question: Ils ont demandé QUOI? The answer is: CE QU'IL ALLAIT FAIRE, therefore, the direct object follows the verb. The reflexive pronoun NOUS is an indirect objet: ON DEMANDE des choses À QUELQU'UN. No agreement takes place.

You're now ready to do some exercises. You may proceed to exercise 3.