accepté

Accepté is the past participle of the French verb accepter, meaning “to accept.” It is used to form compound tenses with the auxiliary avoir, as in il a accepté. When a direct object precedes the participle, it agrees in gender and number: les propositions qu’il a acceptées.

As an adjective, accepté conveys the sense of something that has been approved or admitted, such as un candidat accepté or une proposition acceptée. In addition, accepté appears in phrases where the action is followed by an infinitive, for example il a accepté de venir; in this construction the participle does not change for subject gender or number because there is no preceding direct object.

Etymology and relations: accepté derives from the Latin acceptare, from acceptus, the past participle of accipere (to take, to receive). The form is related to the English verb accept and to other Romance-language equivalents meaning “accepted” or “approved.”

Usage notes: French past participles with avoir generally do not agree with the subject but may agree with a preceding direct object. This is the primary source of the key grammar distinction for accepter/accepté: agreement occurs when the direct object comes before the participle, otherwise the form remains unchanged.