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Le Passé Composé - Masterpost

The passé composé is the most commonly used past tense in French.

It is formed using the following formula:

subject + avoir or être (conjugated in the present tense) + past participle

Conjugating avoir and être

In the present tense, avoir (to have) is conjugated as follows:

je - ai ¹ | nous - avons

tu - as | vous - avez

il/elle/on - a | ils/elles - ont ²

In the present tense, être (to be) is conjugated as follows:

je - suis | nous - sommes

tu - es | vous - êtes

il/elle/on - est | ils/elles - sont

Forming the past participle

For regular -er verbs, drop -er and add -é (parler → parlé)

For regular -re verbs, drop -re and add -u (vendre → vendu)

For regular -ir verbs , drop -ir and add -i (finir → fini)

Forms of past participles:

Nearly all past participles use the following endings to indicate gender and number:

__Masculine__|__Feminine____

Singular | é / u / i | ée / ue / ie

Plural | és / us / is | ées / ues / ies

Common irregular past participles:

être (to be) → été

faire (to do, make) → fait ³

offrir (to offer) → offert ³

ouvrir (to open) → ouvert ³

naître (to be born) → né

mourir (to die) → mort ³

avoir (to have) → eu

boire (to drink) → bu

connaître (to know) → connu

coire (to believe) → cru

devoir (must; to owe) → dû

lire (to read) → lu

pleuvoir (to rain) → plu

pouvoir (can; to be able to) → pu

recevoir (to receive) → reçu

savoir (to know) → su

voir (to see) → vu

vouloir (to want) → voulu

venir (to come) → venu

mettre (to place) → mis ³

prendre (to take) → pris ³

conduire (to drive) → conduit ³

dire (to say)→ dit ³

écrire (to write) → écrit ³

asseoir (to sit down) → assis ³

Irregular verbs formed from other irregular verbs use the same base for their past participles:

mettre → mis; permettre (to permit, allow) → permis

ouvrir → ouvert; couvrir (to cover) → couvert

When to use avoir or être

The majority of French verbs use avoir in the passé composé. Default to avoir, barring the following exceptions:

The following verbs usually use être as its auxilary verb ⁴ in the passé composé. They often have to do motion, but not all verbs of motion use être . They therefore must be memorized.

aller - to go

arriver - to arrive

descendre ⁵ - to descend / go downstairs

entrer ⁵ - to enter

monter ⁵ - to climb

mourir - to die

naître ⁵ - to be born

partir ⁵ - to leave

passer - to pass

rester - to stay

retourner - to return

sortir ⁵ - to go out

tomber ⁵ - to fall

venir ⁶ - to come

All pronominal verbs, without exception, use être in the passé composé.

Agreement in the passé composé

Agreement with avoir

The past participle normally agrees in gender and number with the direct object (or direct object pronoun) if it precedes the verb, barring the exceptions that follow.

J’ai lu les lettres. (I read the letters.)

Je les ai lues. (I read them.)

J’ai ouvert les lettres. (I opened the letters.)

Les lettres qui j’ai ouvertes sont lá-bas. (The letters that I opened are over there.)

Exceptionally, the past participle does not have to agree with the direct object in causative constructions or with certain constructions with verbs of perception ⁷.

Je les a fait lire les lettres. (I made them read the letters.)

Les lettres que j’ai vu écrire. (I saw the letters get written.)

Agreement with être

The past participle must always agree with the subject with non-pronominal verbs that use être.

Elle est allée à la poste pour déposer les lettres. (She went to the post office to drop off the letters.)

Vous êtes parties de la poste avec les lettres. (You (f.pl.) left the post office with the letters.)

The past participle must agree with the reflexive pronoun of pronominal verbs when the reflexive pronoun is the direct object. It does not agree with the indirect object.

Elle s’est asisse à son bureau quand elle lisait la lettre. (She sat herself down at her desk when she was reading the letter.

Nous nous sommes envoyés des lettres. (We sent each other letters.)

Negating in the passé composé

Add the standard ne… pas construction around avoir or être, excluding the subject and past participle. Include objective and adverbial pronouns that precede the auxiliary verb ⁸. When using inversion, include the subject and the verb between the negative constructions.

Je n’ai pas écrit ces lettres (I did not write those letters.)

Je ne les ai pas écrits ces lettres. (I did not write them.)

Je ne suis pas allé à la poste pour déposer les lettres. (I did not go to the post office to drop off the letters.)

Je n’y suis pas allé. (I did not go there.)

N’êtes-vous pas retournés de la poste ? (Did you return from the post office?)

Questioning in the passé composé

Questions are formed in the passé composé using the inversion or est-ce que constructions.

Avez-vous déja écrit les lettres ? (Do you write the letters yet?)

Est-ce qu’ils sont allés à la poste ? (Did they go to the post office?)

Pourquoi n’avez-vous pas envoyé les lettres ? (Why did you not send the letters?)

Questions can be asked informally using standard SVO word order with a question tone at the end of the sentence.

Tu as déja envoyé les lettres ? (You sent the letters already?)

Translating the passé composé

The passé composé can be translated as [verb + ed], [to have + past participle] or [did / do + verb].

J’ai écrit les lettres. (I wrote / have written / did write the letters.)

¹ je and ai are elided as j’ai.

² Be sure to liaise the s and o to distinguish it from sont, the third person plural form of être.

³ These verbs use irregular past participle forms to indicate gender and number:

Fait, ouvert, offert, conduit, écrit, dit, and mort use the following:

_______|__Masculine__|__Feminine__

Singular | ∅ | e

Plural | s | es

Mis, pris, and assis use the following:

_______|__Masculine__|__Feminine__

Singular | ∅ | e

Plural | ∅ | es

⁴ when used intransitively. When they take a direct object, they use avoir instead.

⁵ These verbs can add re- to make verbs that indicate that the action was repeated; these derivatives use être as well.

⁶ venir has the following derivatives: devenir (to become), parvenir (to reach, achieve), and revenir (to come again, come back); these use être as well.

⁷ The six verbs of perception are apercevoir (to catch a glimpse of), écouter (to listen) entendre (to hear), regarder (to watch), sentir (to feel), and voir (to see); the past participle never agrees with the direct object of the infinitive; the past participle agrees with the subject of the infinitive when it precedes the verb.

⁸ Objective and adverbial pronouns precede the auxiliary verb and succeed the subject.