Vous êtes ou vous avez monté la colline en courant?

Question

The quiz response was, "vous avez", but every other translation engine I have used says that "vous êtes" is correct. That would seem correct as the verb has no direct object (I don't think "the stairs" is a direct object).

Can you explain?

Maarten Kamp · Answer

Bill,

if you can correctly replace ‘ monter ‘ directly with ‘ gravir ‘ ( transitive verb ), as in this sentence, that is a good indication that the verb ‘ monter ‘ is transitive and conjugates with avoir in the context.

An example from Larousse in the definition of gravir

“ Monter une pente, un escalier, etc., avec effort : Gravir les étages quatre à quatre. “

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/gravir/38044

Larousse also gives a similar example in the following under ‘ monter - difficultés ‘

“ DIFFICULTÉS

CONJUGAISON

Transitif, monter se conjugue avec l'auxiliaire avoir : j'ai monté les sept étages à pied ; “

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/monter/52501#difficulte

( Have you tried DeepL because it gave ‘ vous avez gravi, vous avez monté and vous avez grimpé la colline en courant ‘ as options )