Reciprocal Verbs
With reciprocal verbs, people perform actions to each other.
Nous nous aimons. - We like each other.
Like reflexive verbs, the past participle of reciprocal verbs agrees in number and gender with the direct object if it goes before the verb. It therefore agrees with all reciprocal pronouns that function as direct objects.
Nous nous sommes aimé(e)s. - We liked each other.
The reciprocal pronoun can also function as an indirect object without a direct object pronoun.
Nous nous sommes parlé. - We spoke to each other.
Elles se sont téléphoné. - They called to one another.
Vous vous êtes écrit souvent? - You write to each other often?
Naturally Pronominal Verbs
Some verbs are pronominal without performing a reflexive or reciprocal action. Tu te souviens? - You remember?
In perfect tenses, these verbs agree with the direct object if it goes before the verb. Otherwise, the past participle agrees with the subject.
Elle s'est souvenue. - She remembered.
Some verbs have different meanings as pronominal verbs.
rendre - to return, to give back
se rendre (à) - to go (to)
G: Imparfait vs. Passé Composé
The difference between the passe compose and l'imparfait can be difficult to master. The imperfect is used for past habitual actions (Quand j'etais petite, je jouais au foot.), to set the scene (C'etait samedi. La lune brillait.). The passé composé, as well as the passé simple, are used to express punctual actions. (Hier, j'ai joué à Colin Maillard. La lune a brillé pendant trois nuits). This does not mean that the action had to happen over a very short time, but that it is understood as a single punctual event, now finished. The imparfait will express a more general statement while the passé composé will express a more precise action.
Examples:
Les singes criaient violemment lors de ma visite du zoo When I visited the zoo, the monkeys were loud.
Lorsque je suis passé devant leur cage, les singes ont crié When I walked by their cage, the monkeys violemment
shouted violently
G: Plus-Que-Parfait
The plus-que-parfait is used when there are two occurrences in the past and one wants to symbolise that one occurrence happened before the other. In English, this is used in a phrase like "I had given him the toy before he went to sleep." In this example, there are two past tenses, but they occur at different times. The plus-que-parfait can be used to indicate the occurrence of one before the other. Essentially, the past before the past.
In French, the plus-que-parfait is formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb in the imparfait and adding the past participle. So to conjugate je mange (I eat) in the plus-que-parfait, one finds the appropriate auxiliary verb ( avoir), conjugates it ( avais) and finds the past participle of manger ( mangé). So, the conjugation of Je mange in the plus-que-parfait becomes j'avais mangé or, in English, I had eaten.
Examples:
À ce moment, j'ai mangé le pain que tu m'avais
At that moment, I ate the bread that you had given
donné.
me
Tu m'avais déjà appelé, lorsque je suis parti.
When I left, you had already called me
General Examples
J'ai parlé français.
I spoke French (on one particular occasion).
Je parlais français.
I spoke French (during a period of time, and I don't speak French any more).
Nous avons réussi à l'examen. We passed the test.
Il a été mon ami.
He was my friend (and he is not my friend any more)
Il était mon ami lorsque...
He was my friend when . . .
