Passé Composé
The Past Tense
Le Passé Composé
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The past tense is used to express an event that
occurred in the past and is complete.
To do this in French you use:
1. The present tense conjugation of
the helping or auxillary verb.
a. this can be either avoir or etre
2. Add the past participle
Note: the following examples are with avoir.
The Past Participle
1. The past participle is different for each group of
verbs.
a. For group 1 ‘er’ verbs:
remove the ‘er’ and add é.
Je parle - I speak
J’ai parlé - I spoke
The Past Participle
c. For group 2 ‘ir’ verbs:
remove the ‘ir’ and add i.
Je finis
J’ai fini
- I finish
- I finished
The Past Participle
b. For group 3 ‘re’ verbs:
remove the ‘re’ and add u.
J’attends
J’ai attendu
- I am waiting
- I waited
The Past Participle
2. The irregular verbs also have irregular past
participles.
d. Here is a list of some of the
irregular past participles:
Avoir-eu
Etre-été
Pouvoir-pu
Vouloir-voulu
Comprendre-compris
Prendre-pris
Apprendre-appris
Aller-allé(être)
Faire-fait
Le Passé Composé
with être
• Not all verbs use avoir as the helping or
auxillary verb.
• Verbs which show motion with a change in
location use the verb être as the auxillary or
helping verb.
Je suis allé - I went
Le Passé Composé
with être
• When être is used, the past participle agrees in
number and gender with the subject or subject
pronoun.
– That means that if the subject is feminine, you add an
‘e’ to the past participle.
– If the subject is plural, you add an ‘s’ to the past
participle.
– If the subject is feminine plural, you add an ‘es’ to the
past participle.
» Elle est allée
She went
» Ils sont allés
They went
» Elles sont allées They(girls) went
Feminine
Masculine plural
Feminine plural