Should we simplify the agreement of past participles in the French language? This is the question asked by the Association of French Teachers.
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The issue was first examined by the International Council of the French Language, which proposes a reform to reduce the time devoted to it in the classroom. The AQPF supports this reform and wants to use it to modernize the French language.
“At the moment there is a very large number of participle rules, as well as exceptions,” explains Alexandra Pharand, French teacher and vice-president for communication at the AQPF.
Currently, the past participle with the auxiliary verb avoir agrees in gender and number with the pronoun or core noun of the noun group, which assumes the function of direct complement when the latter is placed before the verb.
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If the direct complement is missing or comes after the verb, the past participle used with the auxiliary verb does not agree.
“With the reform, we would no longer ask ourselves this question,” says Ms. Pharand. “With the auxiliary avoir, it would remain unchangeable.”
The AQPF met Education Secretary Bernard Drainville last week on the subject. According to its vice-president, Alexandra Pharand, it is high time to modernize the French language.
“For this language to stay alive and evolve, it needs to be updated,” she says. “The various participatory rules are frozen in time and based on rules of agreement established in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries.”
Watch the full interview to learn more about the AQPF’s demands and possible reform.