Past participles of other French verbs

On previous pages, we saw that the perfect tense of -er verbs is formed using a past participle ending in -é.

For other types of verbs, the past participle is generally formed in a different way.

The form of the past participle generally depends on the ending of the infinitive, as shown in the following table:

Infinitive ending	Past participle ending	Examples
-er	-é	commencer > commencé donner > donné Also: aller > allé
-ir	-i	finir > fini salir > sali Also: dormir > dormi sortir > sorti
-re	-u	vendre > vendu rendre > rendu
avoir	eu	(This verb only.)
être	été	(This verb only.)
-ire	-it	dire > dit traduire > traduit conduire > conduit suffire > suffit faire > fait écrire > écrit Exception: rire > ri, sourire > souri
-enir	-enu	venir > venu; tenir > tenu; plus their derivatives.
-ouvrir	-ouvert	ouvrir > ouvert; couvrir > couvert; Derivatives of these.
-aître	-u	apparaître > apparu; connaître > connu
-oire	-u	These verbs and (rare) derivatives: boire > bu, croire > cru
prendre	pris	This verb and its derivatives: reprendre > repris
mettre	mis	This verb and its derivatives: transmettre > transmis; permettre > permis
naître	né	This verb and its derivative: renaître > rené
vivre	vécu	This verb and derivatives:survivre > survécu

Here are some less common endings and verbs:

Infinitive ending	Past participle ending	Examples
-indre	-int	peindre > peint joindre > joint atteindre > atteint
battre	battu	rebattre > rebattu; débattre > débattu
croître	crû	accroître > accrû; décroître > décru
vêtir	vêtu	(This verb and derivatives.)
foutre	foutu	(This verb only.)

What to read next

There are occasions when you need to add agreements to the past participle (see below).

See this page for more information on which verbs need avoir and which need être.

Click here for more information.