Conjugate dire (+avoir) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past)

Steven N.C1Kwiziq community member

Conjugate dire (+avoir) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past)

Following other answers, I'm much clearer but what is "an instance where the verb following «on» changes from the third persona singular to, usually, a plural tense and agrees correspondingly".

And, to be clear, when "on" = "we" it's still singular .... on a dit, here?

Asked 6 years ago
AurélieNative French expert teacher in Kwiziq

Bonjour Steven !

I'm not sure of what rule you're referring to.
With "on", the conjugated verb is always in the 3rd singular person.
If you're referring to the past participle agreement, this only applies to cases with auxiliary "être", where agreement is required.
With verbs using "avoir" as auxiliary, the agreement with the subject never occurs.

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hi Steven, is your question about "on" meaning either "we" or an impersonal "one"?

Salut Marie! On va au cinéma ce soir? -- Are we going to the movies tonight?
Ça y est! On est arrivés! -- Finally! We have arrived!
Il y a presque 50 ans on est allé à la lune. -- It's almost 50 years ago that we went to the moon. (Here it is "allé" and not "allés" since the subject is an impersonal "one" rather than a personal group of "we".)

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Conjugate dire (+avoir) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past)

Following other answers, I'm much clearer but what is "an instance where the verb following «on» changes from the third persona singular to, usually, a plural tense and agrees correspondingly".

And, to be clear, when "on" = "we" it's still singular .... on a dit, here?

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