Question 1

Why does contactés have an -s at the end? Doesn't the passé composé with avoir stay the same?

Accepted Answer

Normally, yes! But there is a special rule being taught in this lesson: when the direct object comes before the verb, the past participle has to agree with it. Here, the direct object is les (meaning "them", referring to the plural les responsables). Because les comes before the verb, we add an -s to make contactés plural.

Question 2

Where exactly does the pronoun les go when using the passé composé?

Accepted Answer

In compound tenses like the passé composé, object pronouns like les always go directly in front of the auxiliary verb (which is ai here). That is why the correct order is Je les ai contactés and not J'ai les contactés.

Question 3

What if the managers were all women? How would the sentence change?

Accepted Answer

The noun responsable is spelled the same for men and women, but if you were referring to an all-female group of managers, the grammatical gender would be feminine plural. Because of the agreement rule with the preceding direct object, you would add an -e for feminine and an -s for plural to the past participle, making it: Je les ai contactées.

Question 4

Why is it ce matin instead of le matin?

Accepted Answer

Ce is a demonstrative adjective meaning "this" or "that". Since matin (morning) is a masculine word, we use ce. If you said le matin, it would mean "the morning" or "in the mornings" as a general habit, rather than specifically "this morning".

Les responsables ? Je les ai contactés ce matin.

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