The French Tutorial, Learn French for free

Chapter 13 - Conjugation: le passé composé
Past participle agreement

Choose your edition $\/$

Chapter 13 $\/$

OK, so first you have to learn by heart which verbs are using être and which others are using avoir but ... That's not all!

Remember also that the past participle agrees with the subject when the auxiliary is être.

Let's conjugate rester (to stay) to illustrate this rule.

rester masculine subject	rester feminine subject	to stay
je suis resté	je suis restée	I have stayed or I stayed
tu es resté	tu es restée	you have stayed or you stayed
il est resté	elle est restée	he/she has stayed or he/she stayed
nous sommes restés	nous sommes restées	we have stayed or we stayed
vous êtes restés	vous êtes restées	you have stayed or you stayed
ils sont restés	elles sont restées	they have stayed or they stayed

Don't make the past participle agree with the subject when using avoir as an auxiliary.