Just to clarify re Form of past participle agreements

Hello There!

Just to clarify re Form of past participle agreements...

Would "What kindof pasta did she cook for herself? be:

Quelle sorte de pâtes s'est-elle prèparèes? Because des pâtes is pl/fm?

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Permalink Reply by wendy White on July 21, 2009 at 1:44pm

Hi Marc.

That's exactly what I thought!!!

Please just clarify that I was right in saying it's:?

Elle se les est préparées!!!

Thankyou SO much

Wendy

Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on July 21, 2009 at 5:33am

There seems to be (understandably) a bit of confusion, so just to clarify:

The traditional convention in this case is essentially to make the past participle agree with the preceding "direct object". Depending on your viewpoint, that direct object is either pâtes or sorte. So you end up with:

Quelle sorte de pâtes s'est-elle préparée(s)?

It's slightly arguable whether to make the agreement with pâtes or sorte in this case (and prescriptive commentators have made the argument either way), but it IS conventionally made with one of the two. So the conventional form is definitely not préparé without any agreement at all.

The argument for making it agree with pâtes, and not sorte, comes from behaviour in sentences such as:

Cette sorte de pâtes est/sont délicieuse(s)

If you think you'd say sont here (possibly most French speakers?), then that points to agreement with pâtes.