Breakdown of Les garçons que j'ai vus jongler avec des épées sont courageux.
je
I
être
to be
un
a / an (masculine)
le garçon
the boy
avec
with
avoir
to have
voir
to see
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
courageux
brave
que
that (introducing a clause)
l'épée
the sword (f)
jongler
to juggle
Questions & Answers about Les garçons que j'ai vus jongler avec des épées sont courageux.
Why does vus end in -s here? Doesn't the following infinitive usually complicate agreement?
For verbs of perception (like voir, entendre, or sentir) followed by an infinitive, there is a special rule. The past participle agrees with the preceding direct object only if that object is performing the action of the infinitive. Here, the preceding direct object is que (standing for Les garçons), and the boys are indeed the ones doing the juggling. Therefore, vus takes an -s to agree with the masculine plural garçons.
What if the object was having the action done to it? Would vu still agree?
No, it wouldn't! If the preceding direct object is the receiver of the infinitive's action, the past participle remains unchanged. For example, if you wrote 'The swords that I saw (someone) juggle', the swords aren't juggling themselves. You would write Les épées que j'ai vu jongler, leaving vu completely invariable.
Why do we need the word avec? In English, we just say 'juggle swords'.
Just as a refresher, what exactly is triggering the agreement on vus before we even look at the infinitive rule?
The agreement is triggered by que. It is a relative pronoun meaning 'whom' or 'that', and it acts as the direct object of ai vus. In the passé composé, when a direct object comes before the verb, the past participle usually agrees with it in gender and number. Since que represents Les garçons, it acts as a masculine plural preceding direct object.
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