Agreement with Pronominal Verbs

Accord avec verbes pronominaux

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All pronominal verbs are être verbs in compound tenses and moods like the passé composé, which means that the past participles must agree with their subjects – at least in theory. In fact, it’s not quite so straightforward.

Pronominal verbs have a reflexive pronoun that refers back to the subject, and that reflexive pronoun represents either the direct object or the indirect object of the verb. Here’s the tricky part:

 Agreement is only required when the reflexive pronoun is a direct object.

Which means that when the reflexive pronoun is an indirect object, there’s no agreement. So in order to know whether the past participle neeeds to agree, you have to determine the function of the reflexive pronoun. Here’s how to do that.

1) Pronominal verb with no noun after it Agreement

When you have a pronominal verb that is not followed by a noun, the reflexive pronoun is usually the direct object.*

Par exemple…

Elle s’est réveillée tard.		She woke up late.
Nous nous étions soûlés.		We’d gotten drunk.

2) Pronominal verb + preposition + noun Agreement

When a preposition precedes a noun, that noun is indirect and the reflexive pronoun is direct.

Par exemple…

Huguette s’est adressée au proviseur.		Huguette addressed the principal.
Ils se sont fâchés pour la décision.		They got angry about the decision.

3) Pronominal verb + noun No agreement

When there is no preposition in front of the noun, the noun is direct and the reflexive pronoun is indirect.

Par exemple…

Elle s’est rasé les jambes.		She shaved her legs.
Elles se sont lavé les cheveux.		They washed their hair.

 3½) Pronominal verb + object pronoun No agreement with the reflexive pronoun

When the noun is replaced by an object pronoun, that pronoun is of course still direct and the reflexive pronoun is still indirect, so there’s no agreement with the latter.

However, since the direct object now precedes the verb, the past participle is subject to direct object agreement.

Par exemple…

Elle se les est rasées. (agreement with jambes)		She shaved them.
Elles se les sont lavés. (agreement with cheveux)		They washed it.

 *4) Indirect object reflexive pronouns No agreement

For 20 verbs, the reflexive pronoun is always an indirect object regardless of any nouns in the sentence. Therefore, the past participle of these verbs never agrees with the reflexive pronoun.**

Why not? When these verbs are used non-pronominally with a noun, they require a preposition, which means the noun is an indirect object. So when that preposition + object are replaced by a reflexive pronoun, the pronoun too is indirect.

				Why indirect?
s’acheter		to buy (for) oneself		acheter pour
se demander		to wonder		demander à
se dire		to say (to oneself / each other)		dire à
se donner		to give (to each other)		donner à
s’écrire		to write (to each other)		écrire à
se faire mal		to hurt oneself		faire mal à
s’imaginer		to imagine, think		***
se parler		to talk (to oneself / each other)		parler à
se permettre		to allow (oneself / each other)		plaire à
se plaire		to enjoy		permettre à
se procurer		to obtain (for oneself)		procurer à
se promettre		to promise (oneself / each other)		promettre à
se raconter		to tell (each other)		raconter à
se rendre compte		to realize		rendre compte de
se rendre visite		to visit (each other)		rendre visite à
se reprocher		to criticize, blame (oneself / each other)		reprocher à
se ressembler		to resemble (each other)		ressembler à
se rire		to mock		rire de qqun
se sourire		to smile (at each other)		sourire à
se succéder		to follow/succeed (one another)		succéder à
se téléphoner		to call (each other)		téléphoner à

** However, there is still the possibility of direct object agreement, as per 3½, above.

Par exemple…

Elles se sont donné les cadeaux.		They gave each other the gifts.
Elles se les sont donnés.		They gave them to each other.

*** There’s always an exception, n’est-ce pas ?  :-)

 Related lessons

• Introduction to verb agreement
• Agreement with vous
• Auxiliary verbs
• Direct objects
• Indirect objects
• Pronominal verbs
• Reflexive pronouns
• Subject pronouns
• Verbs with prepositions

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