Point de départ
In order to talk about events in the past, French uses two
principal tenses: the passé composé and the
imperfect. In this lesson, you will learn how to form the
passé composé, which is used to express actions or
states of being completed in the past. You will learn
about the imperfect in Leçon 7B.
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6A.2-1
The passé composé of most verbs is formed with a
present-tense form of avoir (the auxiliary verb) followed
by the past participle of the verb expressing the action.
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6A.2-2
The past participle of a regular -er verb is formed by
replacing the -er ending of the infinitive with -é.
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6A.2-3
Most regular -er verbs are conjugated in the passé
composé like the verb parler shown below.
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6A.2-4
To make a verb negative in the passé composé, place
ne/n’ and pas around the conjugated form of avoir.
To ask questions using inversion in the passé composé,
invert the subject pronoun and the conjugated form of
avoir.
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6A.2-5
The adverbs hier (yesterday) and avant-hier (the day
before yesterday) are used often with the passé
composé.
Place the adverbs déjà, encore, bien, mal, and
beaucoup between the auxiliary verb or pas and the
past participle.
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6A.2-6
The past participle of spelling-change -er verbs has no
spelling changes.
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6A.2-7
The past participle of most -ir verbs is formed by replacing
the -ir ending with -i.
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6A.2-8
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6A.2-9
The passé composé of il faut is il a fallu; that of il y a is
il y a eu.
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6A.2-10
Essayez!
Indiquez les formes du passé composé
des verbes.
ai commencé, ai payé, ai bavardé (commencer, payer, bavarder)
1. j’ ________________________
2. tu ________________________ (servir, comprendre, donner)
3. on ________________________ (parler, avoir, dormir)
4. nous ________________________ (adorer, faire, amener)
5. vous ________________________ (prendre, employer, courir)
6. elles ________________________ (espérer, boire, apprendre)
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6A.2-11