Passé Composé (Past Tense)

 Le Passé Composé (Past Tense)

The passé composé is the most common French past tense, often used in conjunction with the imperfect. The passé composé can express any of the following:

I. An action completed in the past

   As-tu étudié ce weekend ?
   Did you study this weekend?

   Ils ont déjà mangé.
   They have already eaten.

II. An action repeated a number of times in the past

   Oui, j'ai mangé cinq fois hier.
   Yes, I did eat five times yesterday.

   Nous avons visité Paris plusieurs fois.
   We've visited Paris several times.

III. A series of actions completed in the past

   Quand je suis arrivé, j'ai vu les fleurs.
   When I arrived, I saw the flowers.

   Samedi, il a vu sa mère, a parlé au médicin et a trouvé un chat.
   Saturday he saw his mother, talked to the doctor, and found a cat.

The passé composé has three possible English equivalents. For example, j'ai dansé can mean

1. I danced   (simple past)
2. I have danced   (present perfect)
3. I did dance   (past emphatic)

FORMATION:

The passé composé is a compound conjugation, which means it has two parts:

1. present tense of the auxiliary verb (either avoir or être)
    
2. past participle of the main verb

The past participle of regular verbs is formed by dropping the infinitive ending of a verb and adding é, i, or u to -er, -ir, and -re verbs, respectively:

-ER verbs
Verb   parler (to talk)
Remove   er
Add   é
Past participle   parlé (talked)

-IR verbs
Verb   réussir (to succeed)
Remove   ir
Add   i
Past participle   réussi (succeeded)

-RE verbs
Verb   vendre (to sell)
Remove   re
Add   u
Past participle   vendu (sold)

Formation of "passé composé"

The passé composé of 17 verbs is formed by combining the present tense of être (je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont) and then adding the past participle of the verb showing the action. Most of these verbs express motion or a change of place, state, or condition (that is, going up, going down, going in, going out, or remaining).

Read more: Cliff Notes

Dr. and Mrs. Vandertrampp live in the house. Their name may help you memorize the 17 verbs using être.

 

TABLE 1

Verbs Using Être

	Verb	Past Participle
D	devenir (to become)	devenu*
R	revenir (to come back)	revenu*
M	mourir (to die)	mort*
R	retourner (to return)	retourné
S	sortir (to go out)	sorti
V	venir (to come)	venu*
A	arriver (to arrive)	arrivé
N	naître (to be born)	né*
D	descendre (to descend)	descendu
E	entrer (to enter)	entré
R	rentrer (to return)	rentré
T	tomber (to fall)	tombé
R	rester (to remain)	resté
A	aller (to go)	allé
M	monter (to go up)	monté
P	partir (to leave)	parti
P	passer (to pass by)	passé

Verbs whose helping verb is être must show agreement of their past participles in gender (masculine or feminine — add e) and number (singular or plural — add s) with the subject noun or pronoun, as shown in Table

 

TABLE 2

Agreement with Être

Masculine Subjects	Feminine Subjects
je suis allé	je suis allée
tu es parti	tu es partie
il est venu	elle est venue
nous sommes arrivés	nous sommes arrivées
vous êtes sorti(s)	vous êtes sortie(s)
ils sont morts	elles sont mortes

Remember the following rules when using être as a helping verb in the passé composé:

• Vous can be a singular or plural subject for both masculine and feminine subjects .

   

  Singular Plural Vous êtes entré. (You entered.) Vous êtes entrés. (You entered.) Vous êtes entrée. (You entered.) Vous êtes entrées. (You entered.)

   

• For a mixed group, always use the masculine form.

  • Roger et Bernard sont revenus. (Roger and Bernard came back.)

  • Louise et Mireille sont revenues. (Louise and Mireille came back.)

  • Roger et Louise sont revenus. (Roger and Louise came back.)

• If the masculine past participle ends in an unpronounced consonant, pronounce the consonant for the feminine singular and plural forms:

  • Il est mort. (He died.) Ils sont morts. (They died.)

  • Elle est morte. (She died.) Elles sont mortes. (They died.)

 

Forming the negative in the passé composé with être

In the negative, put ne before the conjugated form of être and the negative word after it:

• Il n'est pas sorti. (He didn't go out.)

• Elles ne sont pas encore arrivées. (They didn't arrive yet.)

 

Questions in the passé composé with être

To form a question using inversion, invert the conjugated form of être with the subject pronoun and add a hyphen. The negatives surround the hyphenated verb and pronoun:

• Sont-ils partis? (Did they leave?)

• Ne sont-ils pas partis? (Didn't they leave?)

Video:

Passé Composé Lesson: Watch a video that clearly describes how to formulate the past tense in French (English).

Passé Composé Lesson:  Watch a video that clearly describes how to formulate the past tense in French (by a French speaker).

Les années 2000: Watch a slideshow of some events in the year 2000, using the past tense in French.  This is an authentic video for a French project.

With être

Family Guy Video: Watch a video to help you remember the irregular verbs

DrMrsVandertramp video (animated) : Music video to help you remember the verbs conjugated with être in the passé composé