Passé composé


The passé composé is a past tense in the French language. It is used to express an action that has been finished completely or incompletely at the time of speech, or at some time in the past. It originally corresponded in function to the English present perfect, but now there is a tendency to use it for all completed actions in the past as the equivalent of the simple past. Its current usage corresponds fairly closely to that of the Latin perfect tense. It is formed using an auxiliary verb and the past participle of a verb.
In British teaching of French, the passé composé is usually known as the perfect tense.

Conjugation

The passé composé is formed by the auxiliary verb, usually the avoir auxiliary, followed by the past participle. The construction is parallel to that of the present perfect.
The passé composé is usually translated into English as a simple past tense, "I saw", or as a present perfect would be, "I have seen". It could also be translated as emphatic past tense, "I did see".
  • J'ai vu quelque chose
  • Tu as parlé de quelque chose
  • Le garçon est sorti
The auxiliary may actually be used similarly in any tense, leading to the French compound tenses.

Auxiliary ''avoir''

The auxiliary verb is typically avoir 'to have', but is sometimes être 'to be'.
This is the conjugation of avoir, with a past participle:
  • j’ai vu
  • nous avons vu
  • tu as vu
  • vous avez vu
  • il/elle/on a vu
  • ils/elles ont vu /they

    Auxiliary ''être''

The verbs that use être as an auxiliary verb are intransitive verbs that usually indicate motion or change of state.
Since some of these verbs can be used as a transitive verb as well, they will instead take avoir as an auxiliary in those instances. For example:
  • Il est sorti
  • Il a sorti un outil pour le réparer
Sortir, monter, descendre, entrer, retourner, and passer all have transitive and intransitive uses.
This is the conjugation of être, with a past participle:
  • je suis mort
  • nous sommes morts
  • tu es mort
  • vous êtes morts
  • il/elle/on est mort
  • ils/elles sont morts
The following is a list of verbs that use être as their auxiliary verbs in passé composé:
  • Devenir – to become – devenu
  • Revenir – to come back – revenu
  • Monter – to go up – monté
  • Rester – to stay – resté
  • Sortir – to exit – sorti
  • Venir – to come – venu
  • Aller – to go – allé
  • Naître – to be born – né
  • Descendre – to descend – descendu
  • Entrer – to enter – entré
  • Retourner – to return – retourné
  • Tomber – to fall – tombé
  • Rentrer – to re-enter – rentré
  • Arriver – to arrive – arrivé
  • Mourir – to die – mort
  • Partir – to leave – parti
The above have been remembered using the mnemonic acronym DR and MRS VANDERTRAMP.
In addition to these, at least two other verbs are conjugated with être:
  • Décéder – to die – décédé
  • Passer – to spend/pass– '' passé''

    Reflexive forms

In addition to the above verbs, all reflexive/pronominal verbs use être as their auxiliary verb. A reflexive/pronominal verb is one that relates back to the speaker, either as an object e.g. Je me suis trompé 'I'm mistaken, I made a mistake', or as a dative form e.g. Je me suis donné du temps.

Formation of French past participles

To form the past participle for first-group verbs and aller too, drop the -er and add -é.
parler - er + é = parlé
arriver - er + é = arrivé
manger - er + é = mangé
To form the past participle for second-group verbs, drop the -ir and add -i.
finir - ir + i = fini
choisir - ir + i = choisi
grandir - ir + i = grandi
To form the past participle for third-group verbs, drop the -re and add -u.
pendre - re + u = pendu
vendre - re + u = vendu
entendre - re + u = entendu
attendre - re + u = attendu
  • The irregular past participles must be memorized separately, of which the following are a few:
acquérir: acquis
apprendre: appris
atteindre: atteint
avoir: eu
boire: bu
comprendre: compris
conduire: conduit
connaître: connu
construire: construit
courir: couru
couvrir: couvert
craindre: craint
croire: cru
décevoir: déçu
découvrir: découvert
devoir: dû
dire: dit
écrire: écrit
être: été
faire: fait
instruire: instruit
joindre: joint
lire: lu
mettre: mis
offrir: offert
ouvrir: ouvert
paraître: paru
peindre: peint
pouvoir: pu
prendre: pris
produire: produit
recevoir: reçu
rire: ri
savoir: su
souffrir: souffert
surprendre: surpris
suivre: suivi
tenir: tenu
venir: venu
vivre: vécu
voir: vu
vouloir: '''voulu'''

Agreement between participle and object

The use of the past participle in compound tenses in French is complicated by occasional "agreement" with the object of the action.
In French, agreement is accomplished by adding an -e to the end of the past participle if the grammatical gender of the subject or direct object in question is feminine and an -s if it is plural.
  • The past participle almost always agrees with the subject when the auxiliary verb is être, or when the past participle is used as an adjective.
  • When the auxiliary verb is avoir, the past participle must agree with the direct object if the direct object precedes the past participle in the sentence.
Examples :
  • Les hommes sont arrivés.
  • : NB: agreement, s'' is needed in that case, because of the être auxiliary - the meaning is that of a predicative expression in that case.
  • Les filles sont venues.
  • : NB: agreement of venues, see above.
  • Nous nous sommes levés'.''
  • : NB : an extra e would be required if nous refers to a group of females - see above.
  • J'ai vu la voiture.
  • Je lai vue.
  • : NB - agreement needed in that case, referring to the car.
  • Les voitures que j'ai vues étaient rouges.
  • : que relative to Les voitures, implies that the participle is feminine plural in that case.
  • Où sont mes lunettes? Où est-ce que je les ai mises?
  • Voilà l'erreur que j'ai faite.
  • : que relative to l'erreur'', feminine singular)
For more information, see French verbs, and.