French help!?

Question

hey!

In the verb tense passé composé when do you add the -s at the end of the verb? I know it is for plural subjects but is vous (for example) plural or not? Would it be right to say Vous etes parles?

Thank you. If you have any tips or trick on how to study french verbs quickly it would be appreciated!

Answer 1

The -s is added to the past participle (i.e., the second word of the passé composé) in two broad cases:

1) the helping verb is 'être' (e.g., aller, venir) and the subject is plural (i.e., nous, ils, elles)

Ex. 1: Nous sommes allés en France.
Ex. 2: Elles sont venues chez moi.

(N.B.: The participle not only agrees in number but in gender as well, as in Ex. 2, where the subject is feminine, thus requiring an extra 'e' on 'venu'.)

2) the helping verb is 'avoir' (e.g., PARLER, manger) and the direct object pronoun is plural

Ex.: Je les ai mangés. (Here 'les' means 'them' and represents a masculin plural noun, such as 'biscuits'.)

(N.B.: The rule for gender agreement holds here as well as above.)

Finally, as for 'vous', it can be either singular (formal) or plural.

Here's a link to an illustration to help you remember which verbs take 'être'. All others take 'avoir'.

http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/kaplan/some_gram_ex/tenses/passe_comp/passe_comp_gram.html

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

I'll try to explain it simply.

When you use a verb that takes etre as the auxiliary, then you add 's' or 'es' to the past participle if the subject is masc. plu/fem. plu.

For verbs that take avoir as the auxiliary verb, you change the past participle only when an object pronoun requires it. Examples: He saw them = Il les a vus (with 's') because 'les' is masc. plu. Il l'a aimée = he loved her because "l'" in this example is a girl.

In your example, the verb "parler" takes "avoir", so you would say "Vous avez parlé." = you spoke/have spoken. I hope this helps.

Answer 3

You only add s when the object of the verb is plural or when it conjugates with être. This includes reflexive verbs.
So you would say "vous avez parlé". But you would say, if you were talking to several people: "vous êtes allés".
http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa010100.htm

Answer 4

There is another important point:
with "avoir" there is agreement with the direct object only if this one is placed before the verb.

J'ai vu une fille. (I saw a girl)
Je l'ai vue. (I saw her)
Qu'elle était belle cette fille que j'ai vue hier. (How beautiful was this girl that I saw yesterday)

Answer 5

hey, haha, i dont speak french, sucks about the AIM, lol. Yesterday was just boring. If you feel like it, my email is [e-mail]

Later!