Pronominal verbs in the past tense: easy lesson

[jrineakter]

How to conjugate reflexive verbs in the past tense ? Do we say "je me suis lavé" or "je m'ai lavé" in French? Discover all the explanations concerning the conjugation of the reflexive verb in the past tense ! After this grammar lesson , you will know how to use the right auxiliary , correctly agree the past participle and conjugate the reflexive verb in the negative form . Let's go!

At the end of the article, you can also practice with a little exercise.

Pronominal verbs
First of all, what is a reflexive verb? It is a verb that is conjugated with a reflexive pronoun of the same person as the subject: me , te , se , nous , vous .

The reflexive pronoun shows that the action is directed towards the subject himself. It therefore has the meaning of "oneself". For example, "I shave" means that I do the action of shaving, but also that I undergo it. It is myself that I shave.

The pronoun is always placed between the subject and the verb.

Here is an example with the philippines whatsapp number data pronominal verb “se lever” in the present indicative:


I remind you that before a verb that begins with a vowel or a silent h, me , se , te become m' , s' , t' . This is the phenomenon of elision. For example, "je m'absente une minute."

The list of reflexive verbs is long! If you want to know more about the subject, read this article on the different types of reflexive verbs .

The past tense of pronominal verbs
In French, reflexive verbs are always conjugated with the auxiliary être in compound tenses.

So, we will not say "you fell asleep ", but "you fell asleep ".

To form the past tense, we use the auxiliary verb être in the present indicative and add the past participle.

The pronoun comes before the auxiliary. So we have the following sentence structure: subject + reflexive pronoun + auxiliary être in the present tense + past participle.

With an example, it will be more concrete:


In the end, it's like the conjugation of a verb in the past tense with the auxiliary verb être . There's just one more reflexive pronoun.

Read also: The auxiliary verb être or avoir, which to choose?

The agreement of the past participle
This is where things get tricky… If you don’t understand much of this part, that’s okay. You can always come back to this grammar rule later. The most important thing for now is that you understand which auxiliary to choose and how to conjugate reflexive verbs in the passé composé.

In reality, few French speakers know how to correctly agree the past participle of reflexive verbs with the compound tenses. So this spelling issue shouldn't block you in your learning of French, okay? Well, let's go!

1. The subject performs the action on himself
The past participle agrees in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the subject, when the latter performs the action on itself.


Here, the subject does the action and the action is directed at the same subject. The past participle therefore agrees with the latter.

2. There is a COD in the sentence
If there is a direct object (COD) in the sentence, we follow the same rules as with the auxiliary avoir:

The past participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object if it is placed before the verb.
The past participle does not agree when the direct object follows the verb.
I'll give you an example:

Nora cut her hair.
We don't put an "e" at the end of the past participle. Why? In this sentence, we have a direct object (the hair). It is placed after the verb: the past participle does not agree.

Here is an example where the participle must agree:

The letters they sent to each other.
Why make the agreement here? Because the COD (the letters) is placed in front of the pronominal verb.

To help you identify the direct object, ask yourself this question: "What did they send each other?" The answer is "the letters."

3. There is an indirect object in the sentence.
If the reflexive pronoun functions as an indirect object (IO), then the past participle remains invariable.

Example :

They spoke on the phone.
In this sentence, the reflexive pronoun "se" acts as an indirect object. Why? Because we say "speak to someone" and not "speak someone". The preposition "à" indicates that it is an indirect object. The past participle is invariable.

Thus, the participles of the following pronominal verbs are invariable: se plaire, se complaire, se déplaire, se comprendre, se peine, se mentir, s'en envie, se regarde, se sourire, se suffit, se survivant, se téléphoner, se parler, se suceder.

Well done! The hardest part is over. Now, there is only one last point left to see: the order of words in a negative sentence.