When should we pay attention to the auxiliary or refer to the priority of the COD on the subject?
The past participle is the bugbear of every French speaker.
In grammar, the participle is a mode of the verb which gives it the characteristics of an adjective.
It is thus that it "participates" both of a verbal nature and of a qualifying nature.
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The rule is simple: the past participle of a verb agrees in gender and number with the COD when the latter, that is to say the object to which the participle relates, is located before the verb .
So it is said:
"From there started the path that I had so often followed."
Because the answer to the question “what had I been tracking so often?”
is "the driveway".
But Molière's language is deceitful.
And the rules can vary... The past participle used with the auxiliary «être», for example, always agrees, in principle, with the subject of the verb.
Except for some pronominal verbs.
Agree or not agree?
Which verbs, directly followed by an infinitive, all have an invariable past participle?
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