Past Participles – Regular and Irregular

Conjugaisons du participe passé

French past participles
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Regular French verbs, stem-changing verbs, and a few irregular verbs conjugate the past participle by dropping the infinitive ending to find the stem, then adding the past participle ending for that type of verb:

Par exemple…

  -er verbs stem-changing -ir verbs -re verbs
donner
(to give)
appeler
(to call)
choisir
(to choose)
perdre
(to lose)
stem donn- appel- chois- perd-
ending -i -u
past participle donné appelé choisi perdu

Irregular Past Participles

Most irregular verbs have irregular past participles:

verb   past participle
acquérir   acquis
apprendre   appris
atteindre   atteint
avoir   eu
boire   bu
comprendre   compris
conduire   conduit
connaître   connu
construire   construit
courir   couru
couvrir   couvert
craindre   craint
croire   cru
décevoir   déçu
découvrir   découvert
devoir  
dire   dit
écrire   écrit
être   été
faire   fait
instruire   instruit
joindre   joint
lire   lu
mettre   mis
mourir   mort
naître  
offrir   offert
ouvrir   ouvert
paraître   paru
peindre   peint
pouvoir   pu
prendre   pris
produire   produit
recevoir   reçu
savoir   su
souffrir   souffert
suivre   suivi
tenir   tenu
venir   venu
vivre   vécu
voir   vu
vouloir   voulu

 Past participle agreement

The French past participle always needs to agree when it is used in the passive voice or as an adjective.

In compound tenses, it may need to agree – learn more.

 Related lessons

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French past participles

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