Participle Agreement with Pronouns

With avere, the past participle normally ends in -o. But when a direct object pronoun lo, la, li, le stands before the verb, the participle agrees with it:

• Ho visto Anna → L'ho vista
• Ho comprato le mele → Le ho comprate
• Ho incontrato i ragazzi → Li ho incontrati

Lo and la become l' before ho, hai, ha, abbiamo…, so only the ending shows the gender: l'ho visto (him) vs l'ho vista (her).

Indirect pronouns (gli = to him, le = to her) never cause agreement: Le ho telefonato (I phoned her), Gli ho scritto (I wrote to him). If the verb takes a + person (telefonare a, scrivere a), the pronoun is indirect.

With partitive ne, agreement is usual but optional: Ne ho bevuti tre or Ne ho bevuto tre.