Passé Composé Page 1

Steps: Passé Composé

1.

1 Know that the passé composé uses two verbs to form the tense. This first, the

auxiliary verb, is either the verb avoir (conjugated) or être (conjugated). The

second is the past participle form of the main verb.

In French, the end of the second verb changes from its infinitive form

depending on the type of verb you are using.

For all verbs ending in -er (e.g. manger, regarder, parler), replace the -er

ending with -é (e.g. mangé, regardé, parlé). This includes 'aller' to 'allé'.

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For regular verbs ending in -ir (e.g. finir, choisir), remove the 'r' (e.g. fini,

choisi). This excludes irregular verbs like 'souvenir'.

For regular verbs ending in -re (e.g. répondre, vendre, attendre), you need to

replace the end with -u (e.g. répondu, vendu, attendu). This excludes irregular

verbs like 'battre'.

Like in English, French has many irregular past participles. You just have to

study them, although there are patterns you can find. Some of these are:

mettre --> mis ; naître --> né ; courir --> couru ; prendre --> pris. Most irregular

verbs ending with -oir in the infinitive end with -u in the past participle: vouloir

--> voulu, pouvoir --> pu, savoir --> su, voir --> vu.

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2 Learn that you form most of the verbs in the past tense with the auxiliary verb avoir . For

a simple trick you can cut off the end of the verb you need to conjugate; as an

example, we'll use the verb manger (eat): J'ai mangé, Tu as mangé. The

verb avoir is conjugated thus:

J'ai

Tu as

Il/elle/on a

Nous avons

Vous avez

Ils/Elles ont

1.

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3 Study the verbs that use être. These are: monter (to go up) and its derivative

remonter; rester (to stay); venir (to come) and its derivatives revenir, parvenir,

devenir, etc; aller (to go); naître (to be born); sortir (to go out); tomber (to fall);

retourner (to return); arriver (to arrive); mourir (to die); partir (to leave) and its

derivative repartir; entrer (to come in/enter) and its derivative rentrer;

descendre (to go down) and its derivative redescendre.

These verbs are called "intransitive" verbs; i.e. they can't have any grammatical

objects. An example in English is 'to go'. You cannot "go something" as you

could "eat something" or "finish something", can you? So that verb cannot

take an object and therefore needs to use être instead of avoir.

Je suis

Tu es

Il/Elle/On est

Nous sommes

Vous êtes

Ils/Elles sont

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1.

4 Also, all reflexive or reciprocal verbs use être as their auxiliary when

conjugated in the passé composé (e.g. Elle se lave --> Elle s'est lavée). You

must put the reflexive or reciprocal pronoun between the subject and the être:

Jean s'est brossé les dents.

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2.

5 The extra difficulty when you use être is that the past participle needs to

agree with the subject. This is to say that you must add -e if the subject is

feminine and -s if it is plural. The 'e' always comes before the 's'. Let's say you

want to translate "I went". If you take the former method, you should translate

it as "I have gone" - but this time you cannot use 'avoir' because there is no

object in this sentence. So, "I have" will become "I am" (Je suis) and then you

add the past participle, just like we've done before, plus the agreement, if

necessary.[1] As an example we'll use the verb aller (to go): Je suis allé(e), Tu es

allé(e), Il est allé, Elle est allée, Nous sommes allé(e)s, Vous êtes allé(e)(s), Ils

sont allés, and Elles sont allées.

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3.

6 Know where to place your object pronouns. You must put your object

pronouns between your subject and the avoir/être: J'y suis allé. Your past

participle must agree with the direct object when the object comes before the

transitive verb. For example, you must write 'Je les ai lavés'.

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4.

7 Form negatives around the auxillary verb; e.g. Je ne suis pas allé à Paris. Tu

n'as pas mangé?