The Spotlight Principle’s five positions, the One Agreement Question’s 6-step decision path, the passé composé vs. plus-que-parfait sequencing table, the meaning-shift-with-se reference table, and a classic-traps cheat sheet with minimal pairs.
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🔐 The Spotlight Principle — five positions
| Position | Name | What happens | Agreement | Example |
|---|
| 1 | Loop Back | Spotlight turns back on the subject — true reflexive | Agrees, unless a body part/object follows | Elle s’est lavée vs. Elle s’est lavé les mains |
| 2 | Share It | Spotlight splits between two subjects acting on each other — reciprocal | Agrees only if the base verb takes a direct object | Ils se sont vus vs. Elles se sont téléphoné |
| 3 | Doer as Beneficiary | Subject gains from the action; the real direct object always follows the verb | Never agrees | Il s’est acheté une montre (not achetée) |
| 4 | Remove the Agent | Subject is what would be the direct object in an active sentence — passive/middle | Always agrees | Ce modèle s’est vendu à 10 000 exemplaires |
| 5 | Baked In | Se has no independent function — it’s part of the verb’s identity | Agrees by default (4 named exceptions never agree) | Elle s’est souvenue… vs. Elle s’est rendu compte de… |
✅ The One Agreement Question — 6-step decision path
Where is the direct object — and does it precede the verb? If yes, agree with it. If no, don’t.
| # | Ask | Result |
|---|
| 1 | Body part or external object follows the verb? | No agreement |
| 2 | Base verb takes à/de (essentially indirect)? | No agreement |
| 3 | Se faire + infinitif? | fait invariable — no agreement |
| 4 | External direct object benefits the subject (Position 3)? | No agreement |
| 5 | Se/me/te/nous/vous is the direct object of the action? | Agree |
| 6 | Position 4 — inanimate subject, passive/middle? | Agree with the subject |
Three attested traps: Elle s’est lavé les mains (not lavée — body part blocks it), Ils se sont téléphoné (never agrees — téléphoner à), Elle s’est acheté une robe (never agrees — Position 3, external object).
⏱ Passé composé vs. plus-que-parfait — reading the sequence
Levels 2–4 now tag the tense on every prompt — you don’t have to guess. This table is for understanding why each tense shows up where it does, so the tag stops feeling arbitrary.
| Pattern | What it marks | Example |
|---|
| Quand + [passé composé clause],… | Two past events in sequence — the blank is the earlier one | Quand les invités sont arrivés, je ___ → m’étais déjà lavé(e) |
| [Consequence], parce que… | The blank explains why a later situation was true | Il n’a pas répondu, parce qu’il ___ → s’était déjà couché |
| Two sentences, no “quand” — a reference moment, then an earlier one (la veille, quelques jours plus tôt…) | Comparing two past moments side by side, not nested in one clause | Elle est allée au marché ce jour-là. La veille, elle ___ → avait déjà préparé une liste |
| [Subject] a dit / a expliqué / a raconté que… | Reported speech — someone recounting what had already happened | Il a expliqué qu’il ___ → s’était trompé de train |
| A single time marker, no “Quand” clause (hier soir, ce matin-là, après le match…) | One completed past event, nothing to sequence against | Hier soir, je ___ → me suis lavé(e) |
| No time marker at all before the subject | Still a single narrated event — default to passé composé | Ce modèle ___ très bien depuis la baisse des prix → s’est vendu |
Real usage isn’t limited to “Quand…,” — that’s just the most explicit version. The other patterns above show up just as often (a parce que reason, two moments compared without any linking word, someone reporting what they’d already done), so Levels 2–4 mix all four rather than drilling one template. (A fifth real trigger, si + plus-que-parfait for past hypotheticals, belongs to the Si-Clauses drill instead — that's a conditional-mood structure, not a tense-sequencing one.) The tell isn’t a keyword like déjà — it’s whether the sentence sets up two past moments (plus-que-parfait for whichever happened first) or just one (passé composé). Outside a drill, this is the actual skill: nobody hands you a tense label in real conversation — that’s exactly why it’s tagged here instead of tested cold.
🔀 Verbs that change meaning with se
| Category | Non-pronominal | Pronominal |
|---|
| Physical action | lever, laver, réveiller, coucher | se lever, se laver, se réveiller, se coucher |
| Cognitive/perceptual | apercevoir, demander, attendre, douter de | s’apercevoir de, se demander, s’attendre à, se douter de |
| Emotional/state-change | fâcher, énerver, calmer, impatienter | se fâcher, s’énerver, se calmer, s’impatienter |
| Social/moral | tromper, plaindre, accorder, permettre | se tromper, se plaindre de, s’accorder, se permettre |
| Beneficiary/causative | offrir, acheter, faire couper, voir, rendre compte de | s’offrir, s’acheter, se faire couper, se voir + inf., se rendre compte de |
Four Position 5 verbs never agree despite looking “baked in”: se demander, se rendre compte de, s’imaginer, se plaire.