The past participle in French

Read more about how to use The past participle in French.
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The past participle

The past participle is formed by adding the following endings to the verb stem:
‱ Ă© for verbs ending in -er
‱ i for the majority of verbs ending in -ir
‱ u with verbs like attendre, boire, voir, lire, etc.
‱ it or is with verbs like Ă©crire, dire, prendre, etc.
Aimer, Ă©couter → AimĂ©, Ă©coutĂ© liked, listened
Finir, dormir → Fini, dormi finished, slept
Attendre, boire, voir, lire → Attendu, bu, vu, lu waited, drank/drunk, saw/seen, read
Écrire, dire, prendre → Écrit, dit, pris wrote/written, said, took/taken
The past participle is used:
‱ as an adjective, to modify a noun. It must agree with the noun in gender and number: adding e in the feminine, s in the plural, and es in the feminine plural forms.
PrĂ©fĂ©rer → un film prĂ©fĂ©rĂ©, une phrase prĂ©fĂ©rĂ©e, des livres prĂ©fĂ©rĂ©s a favorite film, a favorite phrase, favorite books.
Lire → des livres lus, des histoires lues, un journal lu books (already) read, stories (already) read, a read newspaper.
‱ to form compound tenses (passĂ© composĂ©, plus-que-parfait, passif, etc) with the auxiliary verbs ĂȘtre and avoir.
Elle a fini la bouteille, ils ont fini la bouteille finir, passĂ© composĂ© She finished the bottle, they finished the bottle (avoir auxiliary → no agreement with the subject)
Ils Ă©taient venus, elles Ă©taient venues venir, plus-que-parfait They had come, they had come (ĂȘtre auxiliary → agreement with the subject)

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