Breakdown of Elle a réussi son examen !
elle
she
avoir
to have
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
réussir
to succeed
Questions & Answers about Elle a réussi son examen !
Wait, I thought the French word for "to pass" was passer. Why use réussir here?
How did we get réussi from the verb réussir?
Réussir is a regular -ir verb. To form the past participle for regular -ir verbs in the passé composé, you just drop the -r at the end. So, réussir becomes réussi.
Why is it a réussi instead of just saying Elle réussi?
The passé composé (past tense) is built using two parts: a helper verb (here, the verb avoir) and the past participle of the main verb (réussi). Because the subject is Elle, we use the matching form of avoir, which is a. Think of it literally as "She has succeeded."
Since the subject is Elle (she), shouldn't it be sa examen instead of son?