Agreement of the past participle

Accord du participe passé

Accordez selon ce que le mot reprend : je l’ai prévu, entendue chanter, fait réparer, coûté.

(Make the agreement depending on what the word refers back to: je l’ai prévu, entendue chanter, fait réparer, coûté.)

Teacher explanation

Past participle agreement in relative clauses: the quick decision process

In sentences with que (relative clauses), you often have to decide: does the past participle agree or stay invariable?

Find the past participle (entendu, entendue, fait, coûté, passées, eu…).
Ask: “What is the direct object (COD) of this past participle?” (Who? What?)
If the COD is placed before the past participle → agreement.
But there are key patterns below where the COD is not the thing before (or the verb is impersonal), so there is no agreement.

1) Verbe + infinitif: “heard / let / made / wanted to…”

This is the most common trap: a past participle followed by an infinitive (e.g. entendu + réparer, fait + remplacer).

Key question	Is the noun before the direct object of the past participle (heard/seen), or of the infinitive (repair/replace)?
If it is the COD of the past participle	→ agreement
If it is the COD of the infinitive	→ no agreement (past participle stays invariable)

Agreement (the person is “heard” doing something)

La technicienne que j’ai entendue parler.

Why? You heard the technician (COD of entendre), and she was speaking.
No agreement (the thing is not “heard”; it is “repaired”)

La chaudière que j’ai entendu réparer.

Why? What you “heard” is the action (repairing), not the boiler as a direct object of entendre. The boiler is COD of réparer.

Special case: faire + infinitive (always invariable)

With faire + infinitif, the past participle fait is invariable in practice (even if a noun comes before).

Les prises que j’ai fait remplacer. ~~faites~~
La voiture qu’il a voulu faire démarrer / qu’il a fait démarrer.

Memory hook: faire works like “have something done” → you don’t “agree” fait with the thing being done.

2) Quantity patterns: coûter, time with passer, and travailler

These look like normal agreement cases, but French often treats them differently depending on meaning.

Verb	Typical relative clause	Agreement?
coûter (amount/cost)	La somme que cela a coûté	No (invariable)
coûter (effort/expense felt as “costs”)	Les efforts que cela a coûtés	Yes (common in careful French)
passer + duration as COD	Les heures qu’il a passées	Yes
travailler + duration (adverbial)	Trois heures qu’il a travaillé	No

coûter

La somme que cela a coûté (fixed, standard).

Les efforts que cela a coûtés (here efforts behaves more like a true COD → agreement is expected in formal contexts).
passer vs travailler (time expressions)

Les heures qu’il a passées → he “spent” the hours (hours = COD) → agreement.

Trois heures qu’il a travaillé → “worked for three hours” (duration = circumstance, not COD) → no agreement.

3) Impersonal constructions: no agreement

When the clause is built with an impersonal subject (especially il y a), there is no real COD placed before the participle to trigger agreement.

Les problèmes qu’il y a eu. ~~eus~~ ~~eues~~

4) “l’” that refers to a whole idea: no agreement

Another frequent professional-writing pattern: l’ can replace an entire clause/idea, not a noun. In that case, there is no agreement.

La réparation s’est mieux passée que je l’avais prévu. ~~prévue~~

Meaning: “than I had expected it would go.” Here l’ = the whole situation, not la réparation as a COD.

Self-check: 3 questions to avoid 90% of mistakes

Is there an infinitive right after the past participle? If yes, check who/what is COD of which verb.
Is it faire + infinitive? If yes → fait stays invariable.
Is the clause impersonal (il y a…) or is “l’” a whole idea? If yes → no agreement.

Mini recap (what to pay attention to)

Agree when the element before is the COD of the past participle: entendue (I heard her).
Do not agree when the element before belongs to the infinitive: entendu réparer (I heard repairing).
Do not agree with faire + infinitif: fait remplacer.
Learn set patterns: cela a coûté, il y a eu, and je l’avais prévu (l’ = whole idea).

When the verb is preceded by a direct object (COD: who? what?) and the pronoun refers back to an entire clause, the past participle does not agree. La réunion s’est mieux passée que je l’avais prévu. (Il = que la réunion se passerait).
The past participle agrees with the element placed before it if that element is the direct object of the past participle.

Verbe + infinitif (Verb + infinitive)	La technicienne que j'ai entendue parler (The technician that I heard* speaking*)
	La chaudière que j'ai entendu réparer (The boiler that I had repaired)
	La chaudière que j'ai entendu réparer (The boiler that I had repaired)
	Les prises que j'ai fait remplacer (The sockets that I had replaced)
	Le robinet qu'il a voulu changer (The tap that he wanted to change)
Quantité (Quantity)	Les efforts que cela a coûtés (The efforts that this cost)
	La somme que cela a coûté (The amount that this cost)
	Les heures qu'il a passées (The hours he spent)
	Trois heures qu'il a travaillé (Three hours that he worked)
Impersonnel (Impersonal)	Les problèmes qu'il y a eu (The problems there have been)

Exceptions!

The past participle of the verb faire followed by an infinitive does not agree: La voiture qu'il a voulu démarrer.

Exercise 1: Multiple choice

Instruction: Choose the correct answer

1. Les prises que vous avez ___ remplacer ne sont pas couvertes par la garantie.

2. La technicienne que j’ai ___ expliquer la panne a tout de suite repéré le disjoncteur défectueux.

3. La somme que cette intervention a ___ dépasse le devis initial, malgré la garantie.

4. La réparation de la chaudière s’est mieux passée que je l’avais ___.

Exercise 2: Rewrite the phrases

Instruction: Rewrite each sentence as a relative clause with “que” and correctly agree the past participle (agree or not) according to the cases: verb + infinitive, quantities (coûter / passer / travailler) and impersonal constructions. Example: J’ai entendu réparer la chaudière. → La chaudière que j’ai entendu réparer.

Show/Hide translation Show/Hide hints

J’ai entendu parler la technicienne au téléphone.

⇒ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Example
La technicienne que j’ai entendue parler au téléphone.
(The technician that I heard speaking on the phone.)
J’ai entendu réparer la chaudière ce matin.

⇒ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Example
La chaudière que j’ai entendu réparer ce matin.
(The boiler that I heard being repaired this morning.)
J’ai fait remplacer les prises dans le couloir.

⇒ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Example
Les prises que j’ai fait remplacer dans le couloir.
(The outlets that I had replaced in the hallway.)
Cette rénovation m’a coûté une somme énorme.

⇒ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Example
La somme que cette rénovation m’a coûtée était énorme.
(The sum that this renovation cost me was enormous.)

Exercise 3: Multiple Choice

Instruction: Choose the correct sentence.