Use of appelée

Question

I do not understand why appelée was used, and not appelé, and I do not think the explanation below is correct. Le Passé Composé here has nothing to do with Emma’s gender, as it surely has to agree with il. And why, then, would the suggested answers use téléphoné, and not téléphonée ?

Accepted Answer

Well, the suggested answers are both correct. Let me explain why (assuming the same situation as in the exercise: someone talking to Emma):
Il vous a appelée. -- It is appelée because the COD is vous, which refers to Emma, who is female.Il vous a téléphoné. -- In this case, vous is not the COD but the indirect object (COI).
You have to remember that the usage is: téléphoner à  qqn vs. appeler qqn.
So appeler takes a direct object (in which case the past participle agrees with it if it precedes the verb), and téléphoner takes an indirect object (where the participle doesn't agree with the COI).

Answer

Thank you, Chris, and how tricky is this!

Firstly, what are the COD and COI acronyms, precisely? ( I do know the terms direct/indirect objects). Secondly, if you rewrote your two examples with je, tu and ils, what would they be? A confusing aspect is that vous is actually ‘different’ in the two examples (I think...).

Cheers,

Einar