Le Passé Composé
The compound past tense in French
General Format
1. The passé composé has two major
components
2. The helping verb is either avoir and, rarely,
etre
3. The helping verb is conjugated with the
subject
Examples
• J’ai parlé français.
• Tu as fini ton travail
• Monique a vendu son vélo.
Past participles
-er verbs. Drop the –er and add é
ex. Parler parlé
-ir verbs Drop the –ir and add I
ex. Finir
fini
-re verbs Drop the –re and add –u
ex. Vendre vendu
Formation
• Replace the present tense verb with the same
form of avoir (etre) and place the past
participle next to it
• Nous parlons français.
• Nous avons parlé français.
• Tu vends ton vélo.
• Tu as vendu ton vélo
Irregular past participles
• The most common verbs in French have
irregular past participles. You will need to
memorize them.
The LIST
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•
•
•
•
•
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Etre-été
Avoir-eu
Faire-fait
Lire-lu
Devoir-du
Voir-vu
Vouloir-voulu
mettre-mis
pouvoir-pu
venir-venu
“etre” verbs
• There is a small list of verbs in French that
require you to use “etre” in the passé
composé.
• All of these verbs are intransitive. In other
words, they do not have a direct object.
Agreement of Past Participle
• A verb that uses etre as a helping verb must
have agreement with the subject and past
participle.
• If the subject is masculine, there is no ending
• If the subject is feminine, there is an –e added
• If the subject is masculine plural, there is an –s
added
• If the subject is feminne plural, add -es
Examples
• Jacques est allé à Paris.
• Isabelle est allée à Paris.
• Les garçons sont allés à Paris.
• Les filles sont allées à Paris
Direct Object Pronouns
• If a pronoun preceeds the helping verb in the
passé composé, the participle must agree in
number and gender with the direct object
pronoun. This does not apply to indirect
object pronouns.
Examples
• J’ai vu la jolie fille. (No agreement because
the direct object follows the helping verb)
• La fille. Je l’ai vue.
• Les livres Nous les avons lus.
• Nous avons lu les livres.
Negation
• The “ne” and “pas” surround the verb, or
pronoun and verb, in the passé composé
• Il est sorti.
Il n’est pas sorti
• La voiture. Je l’ai achetée
• Je ne l’ai pas achetée