Les cloches sont passées

Question

Les cloches sont passées ce matin pour apporter les œufs de Pâques.
The bells passed this morning to bring the Easter eggs.
HINT: (In France, it's bells that bring the Easter eggs, not a bunny!)

Is this expression idiomatic as the rules above dont seem to apply or have I missed something? Thanks.

Aurélie Drouard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Andrew !

No, here it's the case of passer meaning "to pass by", it's simply not followed by a prepositional group, but used on its own as an intransitive verb.
ps: Look also at the meanings implied by the auxiliaries être or avoir :)

I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !

Cécile Janty-Davies · Answer

Hi Penny,
During a backlog exercise, I came across your query.
Just a note it would have been picked up more rapidly if you had posted it as a new question.
Aurélie has changed the English in this particular example for 'came by', which is one of the translations for 'passer' with être.
Hope this clarifies the matter.
Bonne Continuation!

Andrew Kennedy · Answer

Yes!!!  That's great... that's what I hoped it meant!!  (Or should that be "that's what I hoped it HAD meant??") LOL. Thanks.

Penny Bysshe · Answer

Forgive me for being irritated and not grateful for the information that passer in the context of Easter eggs and bells contains the preposition. I had read the rule about when to use être or avoir with the verb passer and thought I had applied it correctly. If your Hint could mention that passer in this context means passed over or by or whatever the bells do that would be much appreciated.