LE PASSÉ COMPOSÉ
THE PERFECT TENSE
Talking about actions, completed in the past

USING THE PASSÉ COMPOSÉ

How do we talk about things in the past in
English?

Here are a few examples:
1 I have eaten my breakfast
2 You have sold (your cds)
3 They have finished their homework

Type anything you notice in the box below:
I notice…

HOW IT WORKS IN FRENCH

Now here are a few sentences in French:
1 J’ai mangé le petit déjeuner
2 Tu as vendu tes CDs!
3 Ils ont fini leurs devoirs

Can you guess what the above sentences mean?
1
2
3

SO WHAT’S THE RULE?
J’ai mangé le petit déjeuner
1
. The verb “avoir”
(to have) in the right form
2 . The action in the past
(the past participle)
I have eaten my breakfast

Your turn - use arrows to link!
Tu as vendu tes cds!
1
. The verb “avoir”
(to have) in the right form
2 . The action in the past
(the past participle)
You have sold your cds

Your turn - use arrows and colours to link!
Ils ont fini leurs devoirs
1
. The verb “avoir”
(to have) in the right form
2 . The action in the past
(the past participle)
They have finished their homework

SUMMARY SO FAR

WHAT HAVE WE FOUND SO FAR?
 You need 2 things to talk in the past - what are they?
1
. …...
2
. …..

NOW SEE IF YOU ARE RIGHT!

THE TWO THINGS ARE….
1 . The verb
“avoir”
(to have) in the right form
2 . The action in the past (the past participle)

1. THE VERB AVOIR - TO HAVE

Can you remember the parts of avoir?
J’ ai
Tu as
Il/Elle/On a
Nous avons
Vous avez
Ils/Elles ont
I have
You have (singular)
He/she/one has
We have
You have (plural)
They have

2. THE ACTION IN THE PAST (PAST
PARTICIPLE)

Can you see a pattern?
• Verb Past participle
• Mang er
• Dans er
Mang é
Dans é
The patterns I see...
• Vend re
• Perd re
• Fin ir
• Serv ir
Vend u
Perd u
Fin i
Serv i

2. THE ACTION IN THE PAST (THE PAST
PARTICIPLE)

Were you right?
• With ER verbs (e.g. Manger/Danser), take off the ER and add É to form the past participle
• With RE verbs (e.g. Vendre/Perdre), take off the RE and add U to form the past participle
• With IR verbs (e.g. finir/Servir), take off the IR and add I to form the past participle

2. ACTION IN THE PAST

A few verbs do not follow this rule, and have to be remembered separately. Here are some you will use regularly:
• Verb
• Faire (to do)
Past part.
Fait
• Avoir (to have) Eu
• Être (to be) Été
• Prendre (to take) Pris
Example
J’ai fait (I have done)
J’ai eu (I have had)
J’ai été (I have been)
J’ai pris (I have taken)

NOW FOR PRACTICE

The key things to remember:
• You need to know the verb “avoir” (to have)
• You need to know the past participle of the verb

These rules apply to 95% of all verbs in
French!

You will learn later how the other 5% work!

Now for some practice!

TASKS
 a) Remembering the verb “avoir”
 b) Re-ordering sentences in the past
 c) Finding past participles
 d) You create

A) Remembering the verb avoir

Trouvez la bonne réponse:
• e.g.
Je ai
• i)
• ii)
• iii)
• iv)
Tu as
J’ai
Tu a
J’as
Tu es
Il as Il a Ile a
Nous avons Nous ont Nous sommes
Vous avex Vous a Vous avez
• v) Elles ont Elles sont Elle ont

A) Remembering the verb avoir..

Fill in the gaps (without looking back if possible!)
J’ __
Tu __
Il/Elle/On _
I have
You have (singular)
He/she/one has
Nous _____
Vous ____
Ils/Elles ___
We have
You have (plural)
They have

B) Reordering sentences in the past

Mettez dans le bon ordre:
•
• e.g. ai / visité / la / Tour Eiffel / J’
– J’ai visité la Tour Eiffel i)
– …
Il / joué / football / au / a
• ii)
– …
Nous / mangé / du / avons / pain
• iii)
– ...
ont / décidé / au / ils / cinéma / d’aller

C) Match up the past participles
VERB
Lire
MEANING PAST PARTICIPLE EXAMPLE
To read
Nager To swim nagé
J’ai lu
Boire To drink
Faire To do
Il a bu bu Nous avons bu Elle a fait lu fait

D) You create

On a separate sheet in Word or Powerpoint create your own page to remember how to form the passé composé for the majority of verbs

To remind you , include
• the verb avoir
• lots of examples
• how to form the “past particple”

Refer back to the slides here to help you!