Breakdown of Les filles qui se sont emparées du sac se sont réfugiées ici.
être
to be
la fille
the girl
ici
here
le sac
the bag
qui
who
s'emparer de
to seize (take possession of)
se réfugier
to take refuge
Questions & Answers about Les filles qui se sont emparées du sac se sont réfugiées ici.
Why do both emparées and réfugiées have an -es ending here?
Both s'emparer (to seize) and se réfugier (to take refuge) are essentially pronominal verbs. This means they only exist in the reflexive form; you cannot use them without the reflexive pronoun. For these types of verbs, the past participle always agrees with the subject. Since the subject refers to Les filles (feminine plural), we add -es to both.
I thought reflexive verbs only agree when the pronoun is a direct object. Why does that rule not apply here?
That rule applies to occasionally pronominal verbs (like se laver or se parler), which can also be used non-reflexively. For essentially pronominal verbs like s'emparer and se réfugier, you do not need to figure out if the pronoun is a direct or indirect object. The past participle simply always agrees with the subject.
Why does the sentence use du sac instead of just le sac?
The verb s'emparer strongly pairs with the preposition de to indicate what is being taken (s'emparer de quelque chose). Because sac is a masculine noun, the preposition de and the article le contract to form du.
How do we know what subject se sont emparées is agreeing with in the first clause?
Its grammatical subject is the relative pronoun qui. Because qui directly replaces the feminine plural noun Les filles, it carries that same gender and number, triggering the -es agreement on the past participle.
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