Bienvenue en cours de
Chimie Française!
La chimie du passé
composé
Chemical compounds for a compound
tense!
Le passé composé
Past tense
With a definite beginning and end
With some specific words in the sentence indicating
when the action took place: hier, avant hier, la
semaine dernière.
It is called the PASSE COMPOSE because it is a
COMPOUND TENSE= 2 words, 2 main ingredients
AUXILIARY+ PAST PARTICIPLE
Of course the AUXIXIALRY or HELPING VERB agrees
with the subject, je, tu , il/elle, Nous, Vous, ils/elles,
PASSE COMPOSE with
AVOIR (auxiliary)
Avoir : helping verb and also called CATALYST
Conjugate AVOIR at the present tense
J’ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont
REMEMBER IT IS NOT OVER YET BECAUSE PASSE
COMPOSE IS MADE OF TWO MAIN COMPOUNDS
TO HAVE A PAST MOLECULE!
ADD THE PAST PARTICIPLE TO GIVE FLAVOR TO
THE ACTION!!!
HOW TO MAKE A PAST PARTICIPLE?
Regular verbs first
Well for regular ER verbs you take off the R and
add an E accent AIGU
PARLER= Parlé - Hier, pendant le déjeuner , j’ai
parlé avec mes amis.
FINIR: Take of the “R” Lundi, J’ai fini mes devoirs
avant toi.
ATTENDRE: Remove the “RE” and replace it by a
“U”- Mardi dernier j’ai attendu mon ami devant le
cinéma.
For the “irregular” verbs, you
will have to learn the song!
In French Chemistry things are not always that
simple…Here are some verbs that do not fall into the
previous category so I guess, you can called them
IRREGULAR because of their Past Participle.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES..
LIRE=LU, Dit=DIT, SAVOIR=SU, ETRE= été, POUVOIR=
PU, METTRE=MIS, FALLOIR= FALLU, PRENDRE=PRIS,
PLEUVOIR=PLU, AVOIR= EU ,CONDUIRE= CONDUIT,
ECRIRE= écrit, DORMIR=DORMI, DEVOIR= Dû,
OUVRIR= OUVERT, SOUFFRIR= SOUFFERT,
TENIR=TENU, BOIRE=BU, CROIRE=CRU, VOIR=VU,
FAIRE=FAIT, COUVRIR=COUVERT
Some statistics from
our French lab..
Roughly 70% of the verbs take AVOIR as a CATALYST
(auxilary/helping verb) and 30% take ETRE
The result is the same= MOLECULE OF PAST TENSE
BUT WITH ETRE THINGS ARE A BIT more tricky!!!!!
TO MEMORIZE THEM WE CALL THEM:
DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP (anacronym)
SEE THE NEXT SLIDE for a couple of examples 
Which one is your favorite?
Passé composé with ETRE
The verbs who use ETRE as a CATALYST are
mainly motion verbs, so they use a lot of
oxygen and energy this is why the catalyst
is already BLUE!!!
THE PAST PARTICIPLE IS STILL PURPLE
BUT…..
SOMETIMES BASED ON THE SUBJEC’S
GENDER (feminin or masculin) AND
NUMBER (singular or plural) THE
COMPOUND NEEDS AN EXTRA ATOM FOR
PROPER RELAEASE OF PASSE COMPOSE
ENERGY
Passé composé with
ETRE
Then the molecule of Passé Composé bonds with
an extra chlorophyl atom (GREEN) to gain
energy and to create a complete past action!
For example: Hier, JE SUIS MONTEE au 4eme
étage pour venir te voir. (extra E because “je” is a
female)
OF COURSE CHLOROPHYL IS NEEDED IF THE
SUBJECT IS FEMININ SINGULAR OR PLURAL OR
MASCULIN PLURAL
REGARDEZ PLUTOT!
AVEC LES MOLECULES DE Mme DAVIS!!!
POUF!!!
: FOR A PAST ACTION TO OCCUR WE
NEED A CHEMICAL REACTION –
WE NEED 2 SPECIFIC MOLECULES (catalyst &PP)
SELECT YOUR CATALYST ETRE OR AVOIR BASED
ON THE VERBS (FLAVOR)
DON”T FORGET SOME VERBS WITH ETRE ARE
GREEDY AND NEED CHLOROPHYL BASED ON
THEIR SUBJECT