French: past participle agreement?

Question

I read:

“A past participle following que agrees in gender and number with the word que refers to.” [Bourbon, p. 82]

Author gives no example.

Please, can I have an example [simple to memorize and with an English translation]?

I am overwhelmed to near tears by your kindness and detailed answers! I am not worthy. You all deserve a medal from the French government for promoting French culture!

Merci a tous!

Answer 1

La livre que j'ai lue.

The book I read.

Lue is feminine because it refers to the book. This is true for any composé verb that comes after its subject.

Answer 2

Right now, the best example I can think of is this one:

Les matériaux que tu as choisis sont bien trop elévés à y croire.

The materials that you have chosen are way too elevated to be believed.

Note that the past participle, "choisi" has an "s" at the end in agreement with the masculine plural of the word "matériau".

The participle sometimes has to agree in two ways.  For example:

Ses questions sont les tactiques les plus tortueuses que l'on ait jamais trouvées.

His/her questions are the most devious tactics that one has ever encountered.

The past participle "trouvées" is in agreements with the feminine plural in "tactiques".  It is preceeded by the subjunctive mood of "avoir" because it is in the superlative.

I hope your Vista is providing you with a much better view than it was a few questions ago.  I just remembered that you can go to the Start Menu, and then go to Settings, Control Panel and Privacy, in sequence, in order to adjust your cookie settings.  However, it is a bit awkward, and I think your Vista operating system should be working better than what you have described.  If you really have a problem with it, you could consider complaining to the retailer or submitting your feedback to Bill Gates.

  

Answer 3

Thanks, except that all answerers are not all French but French speakers = francophones and everyone of them abides by the same official rules given by the Académie Française.:-)) but...you are right, the French government should be grateful to us for promoting this beautiful language.

The girl I met is smart.

La fille que j'ai rencontréE est intelligentE.

The subject in this sentence is "que"which stands in for "la fille". La fille being feminine singular, the past participle will be feminine singular : rencontréE

The boy I met is smart.

Le garçon que j'ai rencontré est intelligent.

the subject = que, stands in for "le garçon"= masculine singular--> past participle is, as its subject, masculine singular : rencontrÉ

The moms I met are smart.

Les mamans que j'ai rencontréES sont intelligentES.

subject of the verb : que = les mamans --> feminine plural

past participle is also feminine plural  : rencontréES

The dads I met are smart.

Les papas que j'ai rencontréS sont intelligentS.

subject of the verb : que = les papas --> masculine plural

past participle is also masculine plural : rencontréS

Notice that the adjectives are agreeing the same way as do the past participles.

Hope these examples help.

Edit :

I do not  fix ANYTHING after someone has pointed it out. I do not even see anything about someone having pointed something out!

I just put 'e, es, s" in capital letters to attract the attention of the asker (to make this clearer as I had just forgotten to do it while typing my answer) and to show that adjectives & past participles agree the same way in these cases which... I had already mentioned at the end of my response.

I just added extra info about the adjectives.

It just so happens...too...that sometimes typing (not grammatical) errors occur and this is human. When it is a typing error I do correct it (so as not to confuse the reader)and..when other answerers give a correct  and complete answer but make a typing mistake, I do point it out, give them credit for their answer, give a thumbs up and even vote for them.

When I make a grammatical error, I edit.

I don't know about you but, if we take the time to answer seriously language questions, it seems to me that we are here to help the people not to confuse them more and I certainly do not do it to gain points.

I am a professional and I want to give the clearest explanation possible to the person who needs it. As a matter of fact, I have been debating about whether or not I should continue to give my help because I see too many people voting for their own "incorrect" answers which certainly doesn't help the asker.

I wish you a nice day and I'll remain positive minded :-))

Edit 2:

I do not know what you mean by adding a contact : I do not have any contacts and do not want any!

Answer 4

Intelligent(e)(es) is not a past participle, so those examples do not work here. And it is a little sad when someone who claims to have a positive attitude goes back and fixes her wrong answer after the error is pointed out. People who are native speakers should know their grammar. By the way, it is not proper to add people as contacts without their express permission.

Answer 5

it just means that if you're referring to a male, for instance if i said "those are the jeans that he wore yesterday". in french i would write "ce sont les jeans qu'il a portés hier".... i would add an 's' to the past participle porté because it's plural. had it been a feminine noun instead of jeans, which is masculine, i would add an extra 'e' to make it ''portées"  

Answer 6

C'est la fille que j'ai rencontr'ee (the apostrophe is an accent over the first e).

Because "la fille" is feminine, and "que" refers to her, the past participle "rencontre" gets an extra "e".

Ce sont les filles que j'ai rencontr'ees - "les filles" is feminine and plural, so an "es" is added.

Ce sont les gens que ja'i recontr'es - masculine plural, so add an "s".

C'est le gen que j'ai rencontr'e - masculine singular, no addition.

Hope that helps.

Answer 7

La page que j'ai lue- The page that I read

Page is feminine, hence the past participle-lue- is femimine as well

Impersonnal form:

Il faut que j'ai acheté une chemise- I must have buy a shirt

Impersonnal form always gives the masculine gender, even if the object would be of feminine gender ( like her chemise is feminine but acheté is still masculine ).

This said, don't bother too much about such details for now...grammar and text analysis are really important to write French but to speak it, well, people will understand you all the same. Good work!