Past participle agreement with preceding objects (je l'ai vue)

The exception to the avoir rule

In the passé composé, verbs conjugated with avoir usually do not change their past participle. However, there is one major exception: when the direct object comes before the verb, the past participle must agree with it in gender and number.

Just like with être verbs, you add an -e for feminine singular, an -s for masculine plural, and -es for feminine plural.

This happens in two very common situations.

Agreement with que

When you use the relative pronoun que (or qu') to say "that", the object appears before the verb. The past participle must agree with the noun that que refers to.

If the noun is masculine plural (les produits), add an -s:

If the noun is feminine (la télévision, la réclamation), add an -e:

Agreement with direct object pronouns

Direct object pronouns like le, la, l', and les also come before the verb. When using these in the passé composé, the past participle must agree with the noun the pronoun replaces.

If you replace a masculine plural noun like les responsables with les, add an -s:

If the pronoun l' replaces a feminine singular noun like la tablette, the past participle takes an -e:

And if the pronoun les replaces a feminine plural noun like les chaussures, add -es:

You will often see both of these agreement rules used together when handling customer service complaints and returning defective items!