Learn French: Ils ne se sont pas bien comportés hier. - They did not behave well yesterday.

Ils ne se sont pas bien comportés hier.

They did not behave well yesterday.

Breakdown of Ils ne se sont pas bien comportés hier.

être

to be

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

not (used before the verb)

pas

not (used after the verb)

Questions & Answers about Ils ne se sont pas bien comportés hier.

Why do we use sont instead of ont for the past tense here?

The verb is se comporter (to behave), which is a reflexive verb because it uses the pronoun se. In the French past tense (passé composé), all reflexive verbs must use être (here, sont) as their helping verb instead of avoir.

Where exactly do ne and pas go when a reflexive verb is in the past tense?

They wrap around both the reflexive pronoun (se) and the helping verb (sont) as if those two words were a single package. This gives us ne se sont pas, followed by the past participle comportés.

Why is there an 's' at the end of comportés?

Because reflexive verbs use être in the past tense, their past participle usually agrees with the subject. Since the subject Ils (they) is plural, you must add an s to the end of comporté.

Why does bien come before comportés? In English we say 'behave well'.

In the French past tense, short and common adverbs like bien (well), mal (badly), and beaucoup (a lot) are placed between the conjugated helping verb block (here, ne se sont pas) and the past participle (comportés).