Past-participle agreement with être (subject)
Summary
When a compound tense is formed with être, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject — add -e, -s or -es as needed.
Explanation
A handful of verbs form their compound tenses (such as the passé composé) with être instead of avoir, and with these the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number. The agreement is made just like an adjective: add -e for a feminine subject, -s for a plural subject and -es for a feminine plural. So il est allé, but elle est allée, ils sont allés and elles sont allées.
The être verbs are a closed set of intransitive verbs of motion and change of state, often learned via the 'house of être' or the mnemonic DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP: aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber, retourner, devenir, revenir and a few more, plus passer when intransitive. All passive constructions also use être (la lettre a été écrite), and the participle agrees with the grammatical subject there too.
Because the participle behaves adjectivally, the four written endings often sound identical: allé, allée, allés and allées are all pronounced the same. The agreement is therefore mostly a spelling matter, but it is obligatory in writing and a marker of careful French. A subject like vous can be singular or plural, masculine or feminine, so the writer chooses the ending to match the real referent: vous êtes venue (one woman), vous êtes venus (a mixed group).
Be careful not to import this rule into avoir verbs. With avoir the participle does NOT agree with the subject — j'ai mangé stays invariable whatever the subject's gender. A frequent error is writing « elle a partie »: partir takes être, so it is elle est partie, whereas a true avoir verb shows no subject agreement at all. The auxiliary you pick is what decides which agreement rule applies.
Rule of thumb: first check the auxiliary. If it is être (and the verb is not a pronominal verb, which has its own rule), make the participle agree with the subject exactly as you would an adjective — feminine -e, plural -s, feminine plural -es. Identify the subject's gender and number, and let the participle echo it. With avoir, ignore the subject entirely.
Examples
Elle est partie tôt ce matin. — She left early this morning. (partie agrees with the feminine subject elle (partir takes être).)
Mes sœurs sont arrivées hier. — My sisters arrived yesterday. (arrivées is feminine plural to match mes sœurs.)
Paul et Marc sont restés à la maison. — Paul and Marc stayed home. (restés is masculine plural (a masculine or mixed group).)
Madame, vous êtes venue trop tard. — Madam, you came too late. (Polite vous referring to one woman → feminine singular venue.)
La maison a été construite en 1900. — The house was built in 1900. (Passive with être: construite agrees with the subject la maison.)
Ils sont nés le même jour. — They were born on the same day. (naître takes être; nés is masculine plural.)
Common mistakes
Elle est parti hier.
Elle est partie hier.
With être as the auxiliary, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject. Elle requires the feminine form partie, not the unmarked masculine parti.
Prerequisites
Related rules
past-participleagreementpasse-compose