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French II – Participles

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    Study Guide French II – Participles 1. Past Participles in French The past participle is an important verb form in French. It is mainly used to form compound tenses (such as the passé composé ), but it can also function as an adjective . When a past participle is used as an adjective (called an epithet or attribute ), it usually comes after the noun it describes and must agree in gender and number with that noun. Forming the Past Participle For regular verbs , the past participle follows simple patterns based on the verb family. • – er verbs → – é parler → parlé (spoken) • – ir verbs → – i finir → fini (finished) • – re verbs → – u vendre → vendu (sold)

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    Study Guide However, many French verbs have irregular past participles . These often fall into several common groups. Some verbs that are irregular in the present form have regular past participles:

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    Study Guide Common Groups of Irregular Past Participles Verbs Ending in – i • rire → ri (laughed) • suffire → suffi (sufficed) • suivre → suivi (followed) Verbs Ending in – is • acquérir → acquis (acquired) • asseoir → assis (seated) • conquérir → conquis (conquered) • mettre → mis (put) • prendre → pris (taken) Verbs Ending in – it • conduire → conduit (driven) • construire → construit (constructed) • cuire → cuit (cooked) • détruire → détruit (destroyed) • dire → dit (said) • écrire → écrit (written) • produire → produit (produced) • traduire → traduit (translated) Verbs Ending in – u • apercevoir → aperçu (noticed) • avoir → eu (had)

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    Study Guide • boire → bu (drunk) • connaître → connu (known) • courir → couru (run) • croire → cru (believed) • devoir → dû (had to) • lire → lu (read) • paraître → paru (appeared) • plaire → plu (pleased) • pouvoir → pu (been able) • recevoir → reçu (received) • savoir → su (known) • se taire → tu (kept quiet) • tenir → tenu (held) • valoir → valu (been worth) • venir → venu (come) • vivre → vécu (lived) • vouloir → voulu (wanted) Verbs Ending in – ert • ouvrir → ouvert (opened) • offrir → offert (offered) • souffrir → souffert (suffered) Verbs Ending in – int • atteindre → atteint (attained) • craindre → craint (feared)

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    Study Guide • éteindre → éteint (extinguished) • joindre → joint (joined) • peindre → peint (painted) • plaindre → plaint (pitied) Totally Irregular Past Participles Some verbs have completely unique forms : • être → été (been) • faire → fait (done / made) • mourir → mort (died) • naître → né (born) Related verbs usually follow the same pattern as their base verb. Any related infinitive forms its past participle according to the list above, for example:

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