Passé composé - French Compound Past Tense
Le passé composé is the most common French past tense, often used in
conjunction with the imparfait. The passé composé is used to express:
I.
II.
An action or state of being completed in the past
As-tu étudié ce weekend ?
Did you study this weekend?
Ils ont déjà mangé.
They have already eaten.
An action repeated a specific number of times in the past
Hier, j'ai mangé cinq fois.
I ate five times yesterday.
Nous avons visité Paris plusieurs fois. We've visited Paris several times.
III.
A series of actions completed in the past
Samedi, il a visité sa mère, a parlé
au médicin et a trouvé un chat.
Saturday he visited his mother, talked
to the doctor, and found a cat.
The passé composé has three English equivalents:
I danced
I have danced
I did dance
} J'ai dansé
The passé composé is a compound verb. It is formed by conjugating the auxiliary
verb (either avoir or être) and adding the past participle. When the auxiliary verb
is être, the past participle must agree with the subject.
The past participle of regular verbs is formed by dropping the infinitive ending of a
verb and adding é, i, or u, depending on the original ending of the verb:
Verb
Remove
Add
Result
-ER verbs
-IR verbs
-RE verbs
parler
réussir
vendre
-er
-ir
-re
é
i
u
parlé
réussi
vendu
Irregular verbs usually have irregular past participles:
apprendre
appris
atteindre
atteint
avoir
eu
boire
bu
comprendre compris
conduire
conduit
connaître
connu
construire construit
courir
couru
couvrir
couvert
craindre
craint
croire
cru
découvrir
découvert
devoir
dû
dire
dit
écrire
écrit
être
été
faire
fait
instruire
instruit
joindre
joint
lire
lu
mettre
mis
mourir
mort
offrir
offert
ouvrir
ouvert
naître
né
paraître
paru
peindre
peint
pouvoir
pu
prendre
pris
produire
produit
recevoir
reçu
savoir
su
souffrir
souffert
suivre
suivi
tenir
tenu
venir
venu
vivre
vécu
voir
vu
vouloir
voulu
Être verbs - French Auxiliary Verbs
An auxiliary verb is a conjugated verb used in front of another verb in compound
tenses in order to help form the mood and tense of the verb.
In French, the auxiliary verb is either avoir or être. All French verbs are classified
by which auxiliary verb they take, and they use the same auxiliary verb in all
compound tenses. Most French verbs use avoir. The following is a list of verbs (and
their derivatives) that require être:
aller - to go
arriver - to arrive
descendre (redescendre) - to descend / go downstairs
entrer (rentrer) - to enter
monter (remonter) - to climb
mourir - to die
naître (renaître) - to be born
partir (repartir) - to leave
passer - to spend time
rester - to stay
retourner - to return
sortir (ressortir) - to go out
tomber (retomber) - to fall
venir (devenir, parvenir, revenir) - to come
These are all verbs of a certain kind of movement.
Note: these verbs are conjugated with être only when they are intransitive (a verb
that does not require a direct object to complete its meaning). When the above verbs
are used transitively (a verb that requires a direct object - either stated or implied to complete its meaning.), avoir is used as the auxiliary verb.
Je suis sorti - I went out.
J'ai sorti la voiture - I took the car out.
Il est descendu - He went downstairs.
Il a descendu la valise - He took the suitcase down.
In addition to the verbs above, all pronominal verbs use être :
se baigner - to bathe
s'habiller - to get dressed
s'imaginer - to imagine
se laver - to wash
se lever - to get up
se moquer - to make fun of
se préparer - to prepare oneself
se promener - to go for a walk
se raser - to shave
se reposer - to rest
etc.
Aside from using être with these verbs, you also need to remember that for all verbs
conjugated with être in all of the compound tenses, the past participle has to agree
with the subject in number and gender:
Il est allé - Elle est allée - Ils sont allés - Elles sont allées
Accord avec les verbes composés - Agreement with
French Compound Verbs
In French, all compound verb tenses and moods have to agree with their subjects.
Some verbs require agreement not with the subject of the sentence, but with the
direct object. When dealing with French compound verb constructions, there are
three kinds of agreement.
A. Agreement with subject
1. Être verbs
When conjugating être verbs (aller, venir, tomber, etc.) in the passé composé or
another compound verb form, the past participle must agree in gender and number
with the subject of the sentence.
Elle est allée.
She went.
Nous étions arrivés. We had arrived.
Elles sont venues.
They came.
Ils seront retournés. They will have returned.
2. Passive voice
Likewise, verbs conjugated in the passive voice must agree in gender and number
with their subject - not their agent.
Les voitures sont lavées par mon fils. The cars are washed by my son.
Ma mère est aimée de tous mes amis. My mother is loved by all my friends.
Les livres sont lus par les étudiants.
The books are read by the students.
B. Avoir verbs - Agreement with direct object
The majority of French verbs are conjugated with avoir in the compound tenses and
do not agree with their subjects. However, avoir verbs require agreement with their
direct objects or direct object pronouns when these precede the verb. (There is
no agreement when the direct object follows the verb.)
Il a vu Marie. / Il l'a vue.
He saw Marie. / He saw her.
J'ai acheté des livres. / Je les ai achetés.
I bought some books. / I bought them.
As-tu lu les livres que j'ai achetés?
Have you read the books I bought.
Tu avais perdu les clés. / Tu les avais
perdues.
You had lost the keys. / You had lost
them.
J'ai trouvé les clés que tu avais perdues.
I found the keys that you had lost.
C. Pronominal verbs - Agreement with direct object/subject
Pronominal verbs are a combination of both of the above. All pronominal verbs take
être in the compound tenses, but the past participles do not necessarily agree with
their subjects. When the reflexive pronoun is the direct object of the sentence, the
past participle must agree with it (and by extension with the subject). However,
when the reflexive pronoun is the indirect object, the past participle does not
agree. In the examples below, the direct object is underlined and the indirect
object is only in bold. As with avoir verbs, there is no agreement when the direct
object follows the verb.
Elle s'est couchée à minuit.
She went to bed at midnight.
Ils se sont arrêtés à la banque. They stopped at the bank.
Ana, tu t'es lavée ?
Ana, did you wash (yourself)?
Ils se sont dit la vérité.
They told each other the truth.
Je me suis acheté un livre.
I bought myself a book.
Ana, tu t'es lavé les cheveux ? Ana, did you wash your hair?
For the following verbs, the reflexive pronoun is always an indirect object, and
therefore the past participle does not change to agree with it.
s'acheter
to buy (for) oneself
se plaire (à faire...)
to enjoy (doing)
se demander to wonder
se promettre
to promise
se dire
to say
se rendre compte de
to realize
se donner
to give
se rendre visite
to visit
s'écrire
to write
se ressembler
to resemble
se faire mal
to hurt oneself
se rire (de qqun)
to mock (someone)
s'imaginer
to imagine, think
se sourire
to smile
se parler
to talk
se téléphoner
to call
Note that if a sentence has two objects, the reflexive pronoun is always the indirect
object.
Nous nous sommes dit la vérité. We told each other the truth.
Nous nous la sommes dite. (1)
We told it to each other.
Elle s'est acheté des pantalons.
She bought herself some pants.
Elle se les est achetés. (2)
She bought them for herself.
(1) The past participle agrees with the direct object la vérité, not with the subject
nous or the indirect object nous.
(2) The past participle agrees with the direct object les pantalons, not with the
subject elle or the indirect object se.
Agreement with Compound Verbs
Test yourself on the agreement of French verbs in the compound tenses by
translating the following story into French. In order to make the test as relevant as
possible, I have suggested vocabulary for some of the sentences. You can look back
at the lesson if you need help.
1. My husband got up at 6am.
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2. I had gotten up at 5am.
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3. We got dressed and then we went to the beach.
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4. He bought himself a drink.
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5. He drank it very quickly.
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6. I saw some friends.
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7. They gave me some candy. (use « bonbons »)
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8. I ate it.
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9. We told each other some stories. (use « dire »)
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10. I fell and hurt myself.
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