Past infinitive: après avoir / être + past participle

Après avoir mangé, il est parti.After eating, he left.

That avoir mangé — an infinitive of avoir, plus a past participle — is the past infinitive (infinitif passé). It's a compact, non-finite way to say one action was already finished before another one happened. It can follow a few different prepositions (sans, pour...), but by far the most common use — and the one this article focuses on — is right after après.

Quick shortcut: après + avoir or être (whichever auxiliary the verb already takes in the passé composé) + past participle. Same auxiliary, same agreement rules, same implied subject as the main clause.

Forming the past infinitive

The past infinitive uses the same auxiliary a verb already takes in the passé composé — avoir for most verbs, être for the small être-group — but with avoir/être itself left in the infinitive instead of conjugated:

• Après avoir fini le travail, elle a fermé l'ordinateur. (After finishing the work, she closed the computer.)
• Après être rentré, il a préparé le dîner. (After coming home, he made dinner.)
• Après avoir vu ce film, je n'ai plus dormi. (After seeing that film, I couldn't sleep anymore.)

Agreement follows the same rules as the passé composé

With avoir, the past participle is normally invariable — it doesn't agree with the subject. With être (outside pronominal verbs, which have their own rule below), it agrees in gender and number with the subject, exactly as it would in an ordinary passé composé sentence:

• Après avoir mangé, elle est partie. (After eating, she left.) — avoir, participle invariable.
• Après être arrivée, elle a téléphoné. (After arriving, she called.) — être, participle agrees: feminine -e.
• Après être sortis, ils ont pris un taxi. (After going out, they took a taxi.) — être, participle agrees: masculine plural -s.

The one exception with avoir — agreement with a preceding direct object — is the same rule taught for the passé composé, and it can still apply here:

• Après l'avoir lue, elle a rendu la lettre. (After reading it, she returned the letter.) — la lettre → l', feminine, agrees: lue.

Pronominal verbs: être + pronoun + participle

A pronominal verb (not only genuinely reflexive ones, but also reciprocal and inherently pronominal verbs) keeps its clitic pronoun, matched to the subject, right before être:

• Après s'être levée, elle a pris son café. (After getting up, she had her coffee.)
• Après nous être douchés, nous sommes sortis. (After showering, we went out.)

Agreement with a pronominal verb follows the same logic as in the passé composé: the participle agrees when the pronoun is the direct object, but not when it's an indirect object (typically because a direct object noun — like a body part — already follows the verb):

• Après s'être lavée, elle est sortie. (After washing (herself), she went out.) — se is a direct object here, so the participle agrees.
• Après s'être lavé les mains, elle est sortie. (After washing her hands, she went out.) — se is an indirect object (les mains is the direct object), so the participle stays invariable.

Where object pronouns go

An object pronoun attaches directly before avoir or être, not between the auxiliary and the past participle:

✅ Après l'avoir vu, elle est partie. (After seeing him, she left.) ❌ Après avoir le vu, elle est partie.

Negation

Ne and pas both go before the auxiliary, not split around it the way they would around a conjugated verb:

• Après ne pas avoir dormi, il était fatigué. (After not sleeping, he was tired.)
• Après ne pas être venue, elle s'est excusée. (After not coming, she apologized.)

The implied subject has to match

Just like the gérondif, the past infinitive has no subject of its own — the person understood to have done the après-action is normally the same as the subject of the main clause:

• Après avoir fini ses devoirs, Marie a regardé la télé. (After finishing her homework, Marie watched TV.) — Marie finished the homework, and Marie watched TV.

If the two actions have different doers, the past infinitive isn't the right tool — a full clause with après que + a conjugated verb is needed instead:

❌ Après avoir fini ses devoirs, la télé s'est allumée. (This says the TV finished the homework.) ✅ Après que Marie a fini ses devoirs, la télé s'est allumée.

Unlike the gérondif, the past infinitive marks that one action was already complete before the other started — not that the two happened at the same time.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Après manger, il est parti. → ✅ Après avoir mangé, il est parti. (a bare infinitive after après isn't enough — the action has to be marked as already finished)
• ❌ Après avoir levée, elle a pris son café. → ✅ Après s'être levée, elle a pris son café. (se lever is pronominal — the pronoun can't be dropped, and it needs être, not avoir)
• ❌ Après être allé au marché, elle a préparé le dîner. → ✅ Après être allée au marché, elle a préparé le dîner. (with être, the participle still agrees with the subject — here, feminine elle)
• ❌ Après avoir vu le, elle est partie. → ✅ Après l'avoir vu, elle est partie. (the object pronoun goes before the auxiliary, not between the auxiliary and the participle)

Quick check

Key takeaways

• The past infinitive is avoir or être (in the infinitive) + past participle — the same auxiliary the verb already takes in the passé composé — most commonly right after après.
• Agreement follows the exact same rules as the passé composé: invariable with avoir (except for a preceding direct object), agrees with the subject with non-pronominal être, and with pronominal verbs agrees only when the pronoun is the direct object.
• A pronominal verb keeps its pronoun, matched to the subject, right before être: s'être levé(e)(s).
• An object pronoun attaches before the auxiliary, not between the auxiliary and the participle; ne...pas both go before the auxiliary too.
• The implied subject of the après-action normally has to match the main clause's subject — otherwise, use après que + a conjugated verb instead.