Passé Composé

Passé composé

Passé composé is the most commonly used past tense. It is used to express an action that has been completed at the time of speech, or at some (possibly unknown) time in the past.

Passé composé originally corresponded in function to the English present perfect, and is still occasionally used as such (ex: J'ai fini = I have finished), while its main use is as a past tense.

It is commonly used as a "narration tense" for oral and written narration. Note that in formal writing, even for children, narration is usually done with the passé simple instead of the passé composé.

Passé Composé is formed using an auxiliary verb and the past participle of a verb.

• Auxiliary Verbs

The auxiliary verb is typically avoir ("to have") but sometimes être ("to be")

This is the conjugation of avoir:

j'ai (I have)

tu as (you have)

il/elle/on a (he/she/it has)

nous avons (we have)

vous avez (you have)

ils/elles ont (they have)

This is the conjugation of être:

je suis (I am)

tu es (you are)

il/elle/on est (he/she/it is)

nous sommes (we are)

vous êtes (you are)

ils/elles sont (they are)

The following is a list of verbs that use être as their auxiliary verbs in passé composé:

Devenir – to become – devenu

Revenir – to come back – revenu

Monter – to go up – monté

Rester – to stay – resté

Sortir– to exit – sorti

Venir – to come – venu

Aller – to go – allé

Naître – to be born – né

Descendre – to descend – descendu

Entrer – to enter – entré

Retourner – to return – retourné

Tomber – to fall – tombé

Rentrer- to re-enter- rentré

Arriver – to arrive – arrivé

Mourir – to die – mort

Partir – to leave – parti

Passer par – to pass by – passé

Passer – to pass by (this case only) – passé

Décéder – to decease – décédé

The verbs that use être as an auxiliary verb are intransitive verbs that usually indicate motion or change of state. Since some of these verbs can be used as a transitive verb as well, they will instead take avoir as an auxiliary in those instances e.g. Il a sorti un outil pour le réparer.

In addition to the above verbs, all reflexive/pronominal verbs use être as their auxiliary verb. A reflexive verb is a verb that relates back to the speaker, e.g. Je me suis trompé.

Past Participles

To form the past participle for first group verbs (-ER verbs) and aller too, drop the -er and add -é.

parler (to speak) - er + é = parlé (spoken)

arriver (to arrive) - er + é = arrivé (arrived)

manger (to eat) - er + é = mangé (eaten)

To form the past participle for second group verbs (-IR verbs), drop the -ir and add -i.

finir (to finish) - ir + i = fini (finished)

choisir (to choose) - ir + i = choisi (chosen)

grandir (to grow up) - ir + i = grandi (grown up)

The irregular past participles (which are often found with the third group verbs) must be memorized separately, of which the following are a few.:

acquérir: acquis (acquired)

apprendre: appris (learnt/learned)

atteindre: atteint (attained)

attendre:

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