Participe passé : être, avoir, et le COD placé avant

Unité GR-10 · campagne 5 · l'accord que l'oreille n'entend presque jamais.

The agreement chain's final link is the past participle — the most written-exam-heavy rule in French, because acheté, achetée, achetés, achetées usually sound identical. The system is two rules and one twist:

1. Auxiliary être → agree with the subject. Marie est partie. Ils sont arrivés. Elles sont restées.
2. Auxiliary avoir → no agreement… as long as the direct object sits after the verb: il a acheté des fleurs — invariable, whatever the flowers' gender.
3. …unless the direct object precedes the verb. Then the participle agrees with that preceding COD:
   • les fleurs qu'il a achetées — que (= les fleurs) came first;
   • la lettre que j'ai écrite — feminine singular, and here you even hear it (écrit /ekʁi/ vs écrite /ekʁit/).

The working reflex for avoir: when the participle is about to be written, look left. Is what the verb acted on already on the page — as que, or as a pronoun like la or les? If yes, agree with it; if the object is still to come, leave the participle bare.

This closes P48's written face: articles, gender, chain, participle. The items below mix all three frames — être, avoir with the object after, avoir with the object before — so the reflex, not the rule sheet, does the choosing.

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