Perfect Tense

There are three major groups of regular verbs which can be told apart by their ending. These simple forms of the verb are called infinitives.

-ER verbs (e.g. regarder)

-IR verbs (e.g. finir)

-RE verbs (e.g. vendre)

There are some verbs which have minor but predictable irregularities.

Unfortunately, some verbs are completely irregular and unpredictable – you will have to learn these individually.

The perfect tense is a compound tense which means that it is made up of more than one part:

AVOIR VERBS

  • Most verbs take AVOIR as their auxiliary (“helping verb”).

  • Regular past participles are formed as follows:

Thus, when we put it all together, we end up with:

Irregular verbs taking AVOIR:

A number of verbs do not form their past participle following the rules above. These need to be learned separately, and the main ones are as follows:

e.g.

J’ai ouvert mes cadeaux après le petit déjeuner.

Nous avons fait de la natation au centre sportif.

ETRE VERBS

  • A number of verbs take ETRE as their auxiliary verb instead of AVOIR.

  • They are often known as the MRS VAN DER TRAMP verbs.

Thus, when we put it all together, we end up with:

The main verbs involved here are as follows:

Verbs taking ETRE as an auxiliary also need to agree with their subject. If the subject of the sentence is feminine, we add an “e”, and if the subject is plural we add an “s”.

e.g. Elle est venue chez nous le weekend dernier.

Nous sommes partis à 8h30.

Elles sont restées à la maison hier soir.

Reflexive Verbs

  • ALL reflexive verbs take ETRE as their auxiliary verb in the perfect tense

  • The reflexive pronoun goes before the auxiliary verb.

eg: Lundi matin je me suis levé à six heures.

Ma mère s’est dépêchée pour ne pas être en retard.

Marie et Claire se sont coiffées avant de sortir.