Perfect Participle Conjugations

Conjugaisons du passé composé du participe présent

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The perfect participle is a compound verb form, which means its conjugation has two components:

	verb	conjugation
1.	auxiliary (avoir or être)	present participle
2.	main verb	past participle

Par exemple…

Avoir verb: donner (to give)

avoir donné

Être verb: sortir (to go out)

être sorti(e)(s)

Pronominal verb: s’habiller (to get dressed)

s’être habillé(e)(s)

 Since the auxiliary verb is in the present participle, the perfect participle conjugation for avoir verbs is the same for all subject pronouns.

Par exemple…

Ayant peigné ses cheveux, je suis parti.		Having combed her hair, I left. After coming her hair, I left.
Ayant peigné ses cheveux, nous sommes partis.		Having combed her hair, we left. After combing her hair, we left.

In the case of être verbs, agreement of the past participle is required.

Par exemple…

Étant tombée, elle a commencé à pleurer.		Having fallen, she started to cry. After falling, she started to cry.
Étant tombés, nous avons commencé à pleurer.		Having fallen, we started to cry. After falling, we started to cry.

Agreement is also required for pronominal verbs, plus the reflexive pronoun must agree with the implied subject.

S’étant levée à midi, elle était en retard.		Having gotten up at noon, she was late.
Nous étant levés à midi, nous étions en retard.		Having gotten up at noon, we were late.

  Past participle agreement

As in all compound conjugations, the past participle in the perfect participle construction may need to agree in gender and number with the word it modifies – learn more.

 Related lessons

• Using the perfect participle
• Auxiliary verbs
• Past participle
• Pronominal verbs
• Simple and compound verb forms
• Introduction to verbs

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