Past participle of reflexive verbs: no more fear to make mistakes

“Se promener” (take a walk), “se laver” (to wash), “s’entrainer” (to practice) and many more are reflexive verbs. In French, we use these verbs to describe an action done to oneself. The difficulty comes to know when to agree the past participle of these reflexive verbs and it depends on the sentences.

How to form a sentence with a reflexive verb

Many reflexive verbs are from the first regular group which means finishing by “ER”. They will be conjugating exactly the same as the normal verb, se only difference is the presence of an extra pronoun. Let’s take the example of “se laver”.

Je me lave
Tu te laves
Il se lave
Nous nous lavons
Vous vous lavez
Il se lavent

When a verb starts by a vowel, “me“, “te“, “se” are replaced by “m’“, “t’“, “s’“.

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Rule to agree the past participle of the reflexive verb

The past participle of the reflexive verbs agree with the subject when it is doing the action himself.

Here are examples:
Elles se sont lavées (They washed)
Ils se sont écrits (They wrote)

The past participle agrees with the direct object when it is place before the verb.

Here are examples:
Les mains qu’ils se sont lavées (The hand they washed)
Les lettres qu’ils se sont écrites (The letters they wrote)

Rule to not agreeing the past participle of the reflexive verb

The past participle does not agree when the direct object is placed after the verb.

Here are examples:
Elles se sont écrit des lettres (They wrote letters to each other)
Elles se sont lavé les mains (They washed their hands)
Ils se sont réparti tous les billets (They divided all the tickets)

Invariable reflexive verbs

The past participle of the following verbs are invariable:

• Se rire (de soi, d’eux) = to laugh (at yourself, at them)
• Se plaindre = to complain
• Se plaire = to please
• Se déplaire = to displease
• Se complaire = to take pleasure in
• Se suffire = to suffice
• Se sourire = to smile
• Se convenir = to agree
• Se survivre = to survive
• S’en vouloir = to blame yourself

Here are examples:
Ils se sont plu (They liked each other)
Ils se sont déplu dans cet appartement (They did not like this apartment)
Elles se sont ri de son erreur (They laughed at his mistakes)

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Let’s practice!

It is important you practice as much as possible after learning a grammar rule. So let’s practice together with a fun game below!

You will have 5 sentences in total and for each of them, you will need to find how do you write down the verb (do you agree or not?).

Make sure you understand the lesson before doing the game. If you made a mistake, take the time to understand why. Enjoy!! 🙂