Agreement of past participle in Plus que Parfait

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Permalink Reply by Sandra on January 4, 2016 at 5:19pm

Haha, this is my favorite trick :

Participle past verbs agree in gender and number with the complement only if the said complement is situated before the verb. (complement = "the what of the sentence")

I = je = Subject

to eat = manger = the verb here in participle past plus que parfait

the cherries = les cerises = complement (what)

"Je les avais mangées" where "les"= Cherries, feminine, plural is located before the verb "manger", so the verb has to be agreed with the complement, in this case, feminine plural. (plus que parfait doesn't interfere in that rule)

"j'avais mangé les cerises", here the complement "les cerises" is after the verb so there is no agreement, the verb just stays in its participle form.

"j'avais mangées les cerises" is wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Lingesh Kumaar on January 4, 2016 at 5:31pm

Thanks a lot for this detailed explanation. 

I understand the concept well now :)

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on January 4, 2016 at 6:57pm

"J'avais mange les cerises" is correct. 

Don't forget you need to put an acute accent on  the "e" in  "mange"

You can use this one if you like:     é     :)

I didn't see Sandra had already answered you.....

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