The passé composé in french

06 oct. 2017 12:35 - language-swap

Niveau débutant

The “passé composé” is one of the most-used tense in French, so it is important to know it by heart.
Its construction is pretty easy: you put the auxiliary “être” (to be) and “avoir” (to have) + the verbs put into their past participle form.
Let's see:

AVOIR AVOIR MANGER ETRE ETRE TOMBER
Ai Ai mangé Suis Suis tombé
As As mangé Es Es tombé
A A mangé Est Est tombé
Avons Avons mangé Sommes Sommes tombés
Avez Avez mangé Êtes Êtes tombés
Ont Ont mangé Sont Sont tombés

To know how to put the verbs in their past participle form, you can check the lesson on it.
However here is some tips:
the verbs finishing in -é are the verbs of the first group (couper, coupé)
the verbs finishing in -i are the verbs finishing in -IR (franchir, franchi)
the verbs finishing in -u are the verbs finishing in -Re (attendre, attendu – entendre, entendu)
the verbs composed with the verb prendre finish in -is (prendre, pris – surprendre, supris – reprendre, repris)

/!\ Warning, remember that the past participle has to agree with the noun when used with the auxiliary “être” or when the direct object is put before the verb with the auxiliary “avoir”.
In order to know which auxiliary you should use, see the lesson on the choice of the auxiliaries “le choix des auxiliaires au passé composé”.