Breakdown of Les filles se sont souri avec beaucoup d'affection.
être
to be
la fille
the girl
avec
with
beaucoup de
a lot of / many
Questions & Answers about Les filles se sont souri avec beaucoup d'affection.
Why doesn't the past participle souri agree with the feminine plural subject Les filles?
With reflexive verbs in the passé composé, the past participle usually agrees with the preceding direct object, which is often the reflexive pronoun itself. However, there is an exception when the reflexive pronoun (se) acts as an indirect object. Because the underlying verb phrase is sourire à quelqu'un (to smile at someone), the se here is an indirect object. Therefore, souri does not add an -es to match the feminine plural subject.
How do we know se sont souri means "smiled at each other" rather than "smiled to themselves"?
Reflexive pronouns like se can represent "themselves" (reflexive) or "each other" (reciprocal). With plural subjects and verbs of communication or interaction, the meaning is almost always reciprocal. If you ever needed to make it explicitly clear that it means "each other," you could add les unes aux autres at the end of the sentence.
Why is it beaucoup d'affection instead of beaucoup de l'affection?
Expressions of quantity, such as beaucoup, un peu, and trop, are followed by a simple de (or d' before a vowel sound) without the definite article. Even though affection is an abstract noun that would normally take a partitive article (as in J'ai de l'affection pour elle), the grammar rule for quantity expressions overrides it.
What infinitive does souri come from, and is it a regular verb?