Forum Rocket French French Grammar Past tense or adjective - M-C?

Past tense or adjective - M-C?

Michael-W

Michael-W

In lesson 9.2, there is a question in the conversation that says, "Vous avez votre nom et vos coordonnees inscrits dessus?" My question is about the word "inscrits." Originally I was wondering why there was an "s" at the end, when the past participle is "inscrit" (sans s). After looking at the sentence more I thought maybe it was because the direct objects were in front of the verb and thus, being plural, would require an "s" at the end of the p.p. But in reflecting, I thought it was odd that the objects would split the auxiliary verb and the p.p. I have really only seen it when pronouns were used and in that case they were before the aux verb. This seemed like a strange sentence construction. Maybe this is common. But thinking about it more, I thought that maybe "inscrits" is serving more as an adjective describing "nom et coordonnees", as in they are "written" name and info, which really has a different meaning. ex. "I have written the words." vs. "I have the written words." Does this make sense? Am I over-analyzing this? M'aider, MayDay, M-C. Merci bien, Mike
efageari-k

efageari-k

normally the verbs conjugated with etre in french take plural forms, so it is taken this way and the p p of inscrire is impliedly conjugated with etre ( are written).
Marie-Claire-Riviere

Marie-Claire-Riviere

Bonjour Michael! Translate this sentence as "You have your name and details written below" and it may be easier to understand. In this sentence 'written' is not acting as a verb but rather an adjective and this is same for the French translation. And as we know, in French adjectives must agree with the object/s they are describing, therefore, since this adjective is describing the name and the details it it plural and thus an 's' is added. I really hope this clears things up for you. Keep up the good work! - Marie-Claire
Michael-W

Michael-W

Merci Marie-Claire, Yes this clears it up perfectly. Thank you for your response. Et felicitations pour votre deuxieme!! Michael

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