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Added by admin January 29, 2014

THE FRENCH PAST PARTICIPLE

HOW TO FORM THE PAST PARTICIPLE OF A FRENCH VERB

What is the past participle of a verb?

• In English, it is the “-ed” form of a verb (he has walked/talked/written etc.).
• In French, it takes different forms depending on the ending of the verb, and just like in English, we use it to form compound tenses such as the passé composé, the plus que parfait, the past infinitive and others.

Here’s how to form the past participle of a French verb:

• For -ER ending verbs, we change the ending to -É (Ex: PARLER becomes PARLÉ)
• For -IR ending verbs, we change the ending to -I (Ex: CHOISIR becomes CHOISI)
• For -RE ending verbs, we generally change the ending to -U but not always! (Ex: RENDRE becomes RENDU but PRENDRE becomes PRIS)

The not so good news?… Well, there are a lot of irregular past participles that you just have to memorize. Here’s the list!

acquérir (to acquire)  –  acquis                                              naître (to be born) – né

apprendre (to learn)   –  appris                                             offrir (to offer) – offert

avoir (to have)  –  eu                                                              ouvrir (to open) – ouvert

boire (to drink)  – bu                                                              peindre (to paint) – peint

comprendre (to understand) – compris                                plaire (to please) – plu

conduire (to drive) – conduit                                                 pleuvoir (to rain) – plu

craindre (to fear) – craint                                                       pouvoir (can, to be able to) – pu

devoir (must, have to) – dû                                                   prendre (to take) – pris

dire (to say) – dit                                                                 recevoir (to receive) – reçu

écrire (to write) – écrit                                                          rire (to laugh) – ri

être (to be) – été                                                                       savoir (to know) – su

faire (to do) – fait                                                                     suivre (to follow) – suivi

falloir (to have to) – fallu                                                      vivre (to live) – vécu

lire (to read) – lu                                                                     voir (to see) – vu

mettre (to put) – mis                                                           vaincre (to vanquish) – vaincu

mourir (to die) – mort                                                      vouloir (to want) – voulu

Et voilà! You know all there is to know about French past participles! Just make good use of them now! 

Soso