This is What it's Like to Study French

For my French “homework”, I write sentences that I want to say during the course of the week. I keep a notebook of all my sentences, and Gil and I review them in each class.
I write double spaced, because this is what inevitably happens:
The sentence says “They (feminine) didn’t understand me when I called them.”
Aside from the obvious vocabulary, you need to know where the pronouns go, and make sure you have gender and quantity agreement for your past participle.

Gender and Quantity Agreement for Past Participles:
1. Which auxiliary are you using – avoir or etre? Avoir
2. Where is the direct object (COD) – before or after the verb? Before
3. What is the direct object (les) referring to? Elles (feminine "they")

So you have an avoir auxiliary, before the verb, referring to a feminine plural direct object. Therefore, your past participle needs to be both feminine and plural: appellées.

The whole football diagram is necessary just to figure out if the word “called” needs to agree with the word “they”.

This is why French is like math. Really hard math.