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Elle a réussi son examen !

Elle a réussi son examen !
She passed her exam!
From Lesson 71:The passé composé with avoir·French

Questions & Answers about Elle a réussi son examen !

Wait, I thought the French word for "to pass" was passer. Why use réussir here?
This is a classic false friend! In French, passer un examen means to take an exam. To actually pass it (to get a good grade), you use the verb réussir (to succeed). Literally, this sentence is saying "She succeeded her exam."
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?
In French, possessives like son (his/her) and sa (his/her) agree with the noun being owned, not the person who owns it. Because examen is a masculine word, you must use the masculine son, even though the exam belongs to a woman.

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