"Six personnes se sont absentées hier."

Translation: Six people were absent yesterday.

[RealMikePannone]

Why is "absentées" used and not "absentés" ?
I'm sure I'm missing a rule here...I was choosing the masculine plural, why is the feminine plural the correct choice?
Thanks

[W-Ruggles-Wolfe]

Interestingly, the noun «personne» is always feminine (even if used to refer to a male). Just one of those quirks of French.

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/personne/59447

[RealMikePannone]

Thank You.

[mridulkthomas]

Why would "Six people absented themselves yesterday" be incorrect?

[Kevin968039]

It just wouldn't be said that way in conversational English. (sorry)

[Osunsina]

I disagree. People do say it, and it has a different meaning. It focuses on the intention of the subjects.
What I wonder is does the sentence in French have that meaning of actively absenting themselves?

[genepogue]

why was this not acceptable, "6 persons were absent yesterday"?

[CommeuneTexane]

Sorry, this does not work in modern English, though it would have been appropriate in past eras. "Persons" is correct in legalistic terms (legal documents) or to specifically differentiate between the people in a group or refer to them individually. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/persons-people-peoples/ Otherwise the use of persons has fallen out of favor and Oxford does not recommend its use.

[IanPlophead]

I wrote “Six persons were absent yesterday” and it was accepted, so it is likely that Duo didn’t like your “6”.

[wellpat]

Comment dit-on "Six people ARE absent today"?

[CommeuneTexane]

"Six personnes sont absentes aujourd'hui."

[W-Ruggles-Wolfe]

Interesting: why does the present tense use the adjective "absente" and not the verb "s'absenter"? Is it because "Six personnes s'absentent aujourd'hui" is a mouthful and not as verbally elegant?

[CommeuneTexane]

In "six personnes sont absentes," absentes is not the verb s'absenter, but the adjective.

Absent(e) can also be a noun meaning the person who is absent.

[W-Ruggles-Wolfe]

Understood. My question is: why didn't you use the verb s'absenter.

Thanks!

[CommeuneTexane]

You could! Six personnes s'absentent.

I just wrote what came more naturally to me at the time. Now you know two ways. ;-)

[modspyder]

So could you also say 'six personnes etaient absentes hier' with the same meaning. And if so, does it sound natural in French?

[MikeNesbitt1462]

Can anyone explain the variant pronunciation of 'six'.

[Wanhm]

İf absentées is an adjective here, what does se mean?

[W-Ruggles-Wolfe]

In this case, «absentées» is the past participle of the verb «s'absenter» (not the adjective). «se» is the pronoun associated with the pronominal verb.

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/absenter/254#804873