Agreement of adjectival participles

Level 3

A participle used as an adjective agrees with the noun it describes.

How It Works

Tancat/tancada/tancats/tancades behaves like an adjective in la porta tancada or les portes estan tancades. Irregular participles also have agreeing forms: obert/oberta, escrit/escrita and fet/feta. The noun controls both gender and number.

Distinguish this from a compound tense with haver: hem tancat les portes uses the participle inside the verb tense. In the neutral model, it does not simply take plural feminine agreement because portes follows it. Object-clitic agreement in some compound-tense patterns is a separate topic.

A result can be described with estar plus participle, while ser plus participle can form a passive or, in some contexts and varieties, describe a state. In all clearly adjectival examples here, matching the described noun is essential regardless of whether the adjective sits next to it or follows a copular verb.

Examples (3)

  1. Les finestres estan obertes.

    The windows are open.

  2. He llegit els documents signats.

    I have read the signed documents.

  3. La feina està feta.

    The work is done.

How It Connects

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Agreement of adjectival participlesLevel 3

Learn This First

Apply adjective agreement to participial forms.

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Patterns that build on this one.