These are the verbs that use être as the helping
verb in the passé composé:
Descendre
Rester
Monter
Revenir
Sortir
Partir
Venir
Arriver
Naître
Devenir
Entrer
Rentrer
Tomber
Retourner
Aller
Mourir
Passer
to go down
to stay
descendu
resté
to go up/ to climb
to come back
to go out
monté
revenu
sorti
to leave
parti
to come
to arrive
to be born
to become
to enter
to go back in
to fall
to return
to go
to die
to pass
venu
arrivé
né
devenu
entré
rentré
tombé
retourné
allé
mort
passé
Other rules when using être as the helping verb in the passé
composé:
You must make the past participle agree with the subject when you
use être as the helping verb.
Examples:
Il est allé.
Elle est allée.
Ils sont allés.
Elles sont allées.
He went.
She went.
They went. (masculine)
They went. (feminine)
The verb, passer, sometimes uses être and sometimes uses avoir as
the helping verb. If passer is used as “to pass”, then, être is needed.
If passer means “to spend time”, then, avoir is needed. Most of the
verbs that use être are verbs of motion which makes that easier to
remember.
There are two parts to the passé composé. The first part is the
conjugation of avoir or être. You need to use être for the first part
for the list of verbs above. You must know how to conjugate être
correctly in order to use the passé composé.
Here is the conjugation of être:
Je
suis
Nous
sommes
Tu
es
Vous
êtes
est
Ils
Elles
sont
Il
Elle
On
The second part to the passé composé is the past participle. The
past participles for regular verbs are easy. They are regular, so they
follow a pattern.
Regular past participles:
For –er verbs, drop the er and add é.
For – re verbs, drop the re and add u.
For – ir verbs, drop the ir and add i.
Examples:
parler – parlé
attendre – attendu
finir – fini
Irregular past participles
For irregular verbs, you must memorize their past participles. You
have already seen some irregular verbs in the list above. Here are
some others.
*aller – allé
être - été
faire – fait
avoir – eu
Other rules when using être as the helping verb in the passé
composé:
You must make the past participle agree with the subject when you
use être as the helping verb.
Examples:
Il est allé.
Elle est allée.
Ils sont allés.
He went.
She went.
They went. (masculine)
Elles sont allées.
They went. (feminine)
The verb, passer, sometimes uses être and sometimes uses avoir as
the helping verb. If passer is used as “to pass”, then, être is needed.
If passer means “to spend time”, then, avoir is needed. Most of the
verbs that use être are verbs of motion which makes that easier to
remember.