When writing a professional email, you type “I will keep you informed,” and doubt arises when adding an -e or an -s. The problem does not stem from a lack of knowledge of grammar: it comes from the fact that we do not always know who the pronoun “you” refers to at the moment of writing. The past participle “informed” follows a precise mechanism, related to the position of the direct object complement.
Agreement of the past participle informed with the auxiliary avoir: the role of the COD
Most errors regarding “informed” or “informed” appear in sentences constructed with the auxiliary avoir. In this case, a simple rule applies: the past participle agrees with the COD placed before the verb.
Let’s take a concrete situation. You write to a female colleague: “She informed me of the meeting.” The pronoun “me” is the COD of the verb inform. It refers to a woman, it is placed before the verb, so we agree in the feminine singular.
If this same sentence is addressed to a man, we write “she informed me.” The mechanism is identical; only the gender of the referent changes. The same logic applies in “she informed us” (mixed or masculine group) or “she informed us” (exclusively female group).
To know how to agree informed and informed, we always start by identifying who is informed, not who informs. It is the recipient of the action that dictates the agreement, never the subject.
Informed in the construction “keep informed”: why the agreement is so tricky
The phrase “I keep you informed” poses an additional problem because it contains two complements. In “I keep you informed of the decision,” the pronoun “you” is the COD of the verb “keep,” while “of the decision” introduces the content of the information.
Only the pronoun placed before the verb determines the agreement, not the complement introduced by “of.” Therefore, we never look at what follows to decide on the ending.
Here are the correct forms according to the situation:
- “I keep you informed” when addressing a single man.
- “I keep you informed” when addressing a single woman.
- “I keep you informed” for several people (mixed or masculine group).
- “I keep you informed” for a group composed exclusively of women.
The most reliable reflex is to rephrase the sentence in the passive voice. “I keep you informed” becomes “you are kept informed.” If the agreement sounds correct in the passive version, it is correct in the active version.
COD or COI: the distinction that changes everything for the spelling of informed
Sometimes we confuse “to inform someone” (direct construction) with verbs in indirect construction. In “I inform you,” “you” is indeed COD. In “I speak to you” or “I write to you,” “you” is COI (indirect object complement). This difference has a direct consequence on the agreement.
With a COI, no agreement of the past participle is possible. We write “she spoke to me” without variation, regardless of gender. In contrast, “she informed me” accepts the agreement because “me” is the COD of the verb inform.
To check the construction, we replace the pronoun with a noun phrase. “To inform someone” works without a preposition; it is a direct construction. “To speak to someone” requires the preposition “to”; it is an indirect construction. This test takes two seconds and clears up the doubt every time.
Common errors in professional emails and how to avoid them
In a professional context, we often write without knowing the gender of the recipient. An email sent to “the project team” does not always allow for a clear decision. In this case, the masculine plural “informed” works as the default form for a mixed group.
When addressing a unique person whose gender is unknown (spontaneous application, first contact), the masculine singular “informed” remains the unmarked form in traditional grammar. Some writers opt for the double form “informed(e)” in parentheses, but this notation does not have an official grammatical status.
The most common traps in emails:
- Writing “I keep you inform” with the -er ending of the infinitive, instead of the past participle -é. The classic test works: we replace it with a third group verb (“I keep you informed,” not “I keep you inform”).
- Agreeing with the subject instead of the COD. In “she informed you,” the -é agrees with “you,” not with “she.” If “you” refers to a man, we write “informed” even if the subject is feminine.
- Forgetting the plural when “you” refers to several people. “We will keep you informed of the progress” takes an -s as soon as “you” refers to more than one person.
Summary of the forms of the past participle informed
| Recipient | Correct form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A man | informed | She informed me of the postponement. |
| A woman | informed | She informed me of the postponement. |
| Several men or mixed group | informed | She informed us of the postponement. |
| Several women | informed | She informed us of the postponement. |
The agreement of “informed” relies on a stable mechanism: identify the COD, check that it is placed before the verb, and then agree in gender and number with this COD. The passive reformulation (“you are kept informed”) remains the quickest test when doubt persists, even for experienced writers.
