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The bases of passé-composé
The bases of passé-composé
What is it ?
What is it ?
“Passé-composé” literally means “compound past”: it’s a past tense that is in two parts.
Its creation looks like an English present perfect (I have walked) but it is used like a simple past (I walked).
J’ai marché en ville
I walked downtownNous avons mangé du chocolat
We ate chocolateIls ont acheté des glaces
They bought ice-creams.Vous avez eu des enfants ?
You had kids?
pc 1.mp3How to create a passé-composé?
How to create a passé-composé?
A passé-composé is made of 2 parts: an auxiliary and a past participle.
The auxiliary is avoir, conjugated in the present tense: j’ai, tu as, il/elle/iel a, nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles/iels ont.
Do you remember avoir in the present tense? Let's check!
I suggest you keep going until you always have them right... If that fundation isn't strong, you won't be able to progress much more in French :/
Only the auxiliary part (= the avoir part) changes with the subject pronoun. The second part, the past-participle, is identical for all subject pronoun.
For instance, for the verb "manger", the past participle is "mangé".
MANGER (to eat) - passé-composé
j'ai mangé
I atetu as mangé
you ateil / elle / iel / on a mangé
he/she/they/one atenous avons mangé
we atevous avez mangé
you ateils / elles / iels ont mangé
they ate
mangerPC.mp3However, the past-participle for each verb can be different...
_er verbs take an _ é
Note: spelling changes, but pronunciation is identical: _er = _é
manger --> mangé
to eat eatenparler --> parlé
to speak spokenjouer --> joué
to play played
DO NOT FORGET THE ACCENT on the "é". If you don't put it, not only is it pronounced differently, but in addition, it's a regular present tense. Details matter!
Le's try it!
Create the past participle for those ER verbs.
BAD NEWS... Non _ER verbs are a little more annoying.
_ir verbs tend to take _i
finir --> fini
to finish finishedpartir --> parti
to leave left
_oir(e) verbs tend to take _u
boire --> bu
to drink drunkvoir --> vu
to see seen
_re verbs tend to take _u, _it, or _is
lire --> lu
to read readécrire --> écrit
to write writtenprendre --> pris
to take taken
And then random verbs have random endings in past-participle. Well... kinda like your verbs in English, right ? to draw, drew, drawn ? Well same here: no real rule.
As always, être and avoir are high on the weirdness list:
avoir --> eu
to have hadêtre --> été
to be been
Solution? Learn them by heart for now, and then eventually you will have heard the most common ones so many times that they will come naturally to you.
Here is an activity with infinitive and their "weird" participe passé. Can you match them up?
Note that you can hear the reading of the past-participles.
Well done!
Now try to remember them with those flashcards.
The system will give you all the ones you missed again after you passed the 20 cards. Random order, too :)
Keep going until you think you know them enough to spell them :)
Amazing!
Let's see if you can produce them on your own :D
Puting it all together
Puting it all together
So, you have reviewed how to conjugate avoir in the present, and you have an idea of how to get a past-participle. All that is left is to put everything together.
Are you ready to conjugate in the past? Let's try it !
Flashcard !
Drag and drop
(make it bigger if you need! bottom right corner icon)
Typing in your answers... I believe in you!
Of course, you include your conjugated verb in a whole sentence.
J'ai mangé une omelette.
I ate an omelette.Tu as regardé le manageur au bar.
You watched the manager at the bar.Nous avons pris le poulet au restaurant.
We took the chicken at the restaurant.Elles ont écouté le serveur avec attention.
They listened to the waiter with attention.
pc 2.mp3Let's try it!
Passé-composé with être
Passé-composé with être
We have previously seen that to create a past tense, you follow the model:
[AVOIR in the present tense] + [past participle]
Now, I admit, I lied to you. Turns out that it's NOT always the verb avoir. It can also be être...
he went --> il est allé
Scandalous, right ?
How to decide between être or avoir?
How to decide between être or avoir?
There is a list of 17 specific verbs that take être in the passé-composé instead of avoir. And... you are going to learn that list :D
DR&MRS.mp3
Only those 17 verbs could ever take "être" in the passé-composé. Therefore, when you have to create a passé-composé, your first move should be to check if the verb you need is one of those 17 verbs.
So... you have to know that list by heart :D
Fortunately for you, people have been learning French since for ever and they have invented all kinds of little tricks to remember the things to know by heart.
The most famous way to remember those verbs is the anagram DR&MRS VANDERTRAMPP (see picture).
Note: you can see on the participe passé here that they have (e) and (s) ... Can you guess why? That's right : because with être, you have to agree the participe passé in number and gender with the subject of the verb :)
Let's see if you know your DR&MRS VANDERTRAMPP verbs
Decide if the verbs take ÊTRE or AVOIR.
Whack a mole!
Hit the Dr and Mrs Vandertrampp verbs :)
Creating a passé-composé with être
Creating a passé-composé with être
Conjugaison avec être
Let's review the verb être in the present tense, since we will need it for this past conjugation. Much like avoir, être is one of those fundation stones that cannot be wanky - you need it super strong or you won't be able to build up your French. So keep practicing here until you have it right!
The most useful 7 "être" verbs - Know those by heart fo sure !
aller - to go
rester - to stay
venir - to come
sortir - to exit
partir - to leave
entrer - to enter, to come in
arriver - to arrive
Those are all mouvement verbs, but please don't make conclusion out of this! Some other mouvement verbs don't use "être".
Do you already know those verbs ? Let's check !
As you remember, we need the past-participle form of those verbs to make a past.
Can you figure them out from this game ?
Let's put everything together !
Agreement with passé-composé with être
Agreement with passé-composé with être
You may have noticed... There were only singular subjects in that last activity? Why?
Well, SURPRISE!
With a passé-composé with être, you need to agree the participe-passé (second part) like an adjective: gender and number.
il est allé
il= masculin singulier --> allé, no extraelle est allée
elle = féminin singulier --> allé + e (féminin)ils sont allés
ils = masculin pluriel --> allé + s (pluriel)elle sont allée
elles = féminin pluriel --> allé + e (féminin) + s (pluriel)
None of those agreement letters are pronounced! Therefore , pronunciation-wise, allé = allée = allés = allées.
However, you may need to make a liaison: il est allé = /ilétalé/
il est allé.mp3Of course, you have to agree with the other subject pronouns, too !
Je and tu are always singular, but the gender can be either masculin or féminin.
I went
je suis allé (je= a boy)
je suis allée (je= a girl)
you went
tu es allé (tu= a boy)
tu es allée (tu= a girl)
On, nous, and vous are trickier, because they can be singular, plural, masculin or féminin.
we went
nous sommes allés (nous= all boys OR boys and girls)
nous sommes allées (nous= all girls)
nous sommes allé (nous=royal we for a boy - used exclusively by the Pope, boy Royalty, and boy narcissistic assholes)
nous sommes allée (nous=royal we for a girl - used exclusively by the girl Royalty, and girl narcissistic assholes)
you went
vous êtes allés (vous= all boys OR boys and girls)
vous êtes allées (vous= all girls)
vous êtes allé (vous= formal Vous for a boy)
vous êtes allée (vous = formal Vous for a girl)
one went
on est allé (on = one lambda person. RUDE.)
on est allés (on = nous = several people, all boys or boys and girls)
on est allées (on = nous = several girls)
You notice that some of those situations are super rare. I don't think you will ever meet the royal we in a French text. But remember to agree your participe-passé in gender and number if it's after the verb être as it works like an adjective :)
aller acccords PC.mp3Let's try it!
Can you tell what gender / number is the subject of those verbs?
Your turn!
Agree the past-participle according to the info.
PS: what about the non-binary options ?
PS: what about the non-binary options ?
Well, if you want ot use iel and iels, then you would agree in number. But for gender, the rules aren't very clear since it's not an official thing for now.
One possibility is to use the ending "ae" (pronounced é) instead of the past participle ending (be it _é, _i, _it, _is, or _u).
ex: iel est allae ; iels sont allaesAnother possibility is to use parenthesis (just like for adjectives) to separate the masculin from the féminin
ex iel est allé(e) ; iels sont allé(e)sFinally, you can use the highly controversial "mid-point" to separate the masculin from the féminin
ex iel est allé· e ; iels sont allé· es
iel est allé.mp3ALRIGHT ! You are all set ! Let's mix it up.
Do you remember those 7 verbs that take "être" instead of "avoir"? Let's check!
Conjugate as long as you can : pay attention to the auxiliary (avoir or être?) and the agreement (only with être)
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