📖LearnModule 12 · Lesson 9 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C1, completedUnit 2 · L'accord du participe passé
Ceux qui ne bougent jamais
Module 12 of the free French course (CEFR C1, completed), lesson 9 of 30: Some participles never agree, whatever is in front of them. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 9.
The words
French
English
Say it
les robes qu'elle a fait faire
the dresses she had made
lay rohb kehl ah feh FEHR
la chaleur qu'il a fait
the heat there was
lah shah-luhr keel ah FEH
j'en ai mangé
I ate some
zhah(n) nay mah(n)-ZHAY
la robe
the dress
lah ROHB
la chaleur
the heat
lah shah-LUHR
impersonnel
impersonal
a(n)-pehr-soh-NEHL
figé
frozen (unchanging)
fee-ZHAY
à vue
by sight
ah VEW
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La règle · The rule
Some participles never agree, whatever is in front of them. Fait followed by an infinitive is fixed: les robes qu'elle a fait faire. So is the participle of an impersonal verb: la chaleur qu'il a fait.
Et aussi · And also
And the participle of a verb with en: des pommes, j'en ai mangé. En is never a direct object for this purpose, so nothing agrees. Three exceptions, all worth knowing by sight.
Attention · Watch out
fait + infinitive never agrees: les robes qu'elle a fait faire. Neither does the participle of an impersonal verb (la chaleur qu'il a fait) or one whose object is en (j'en ai mangé).
faire, passé composé — the table
je ai fait · tu as fait · il/elle a fait · nous avons fait · vous avez fait · ils/elles ont fait
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with les robes qu'elle a fait faire.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write out faire, passé composé in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.