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When to use the passé composé (perfect tense)

The passé composé (perfect tense) is used to talk about things that happened in the ‎past. It is often used with past time phrases:‎

  • J’ai dzé au foot hier - I played football yesterday.‎
  • Tu as Բé un sandwich à midi? - Did you eat a sandwich for lunch?‎
  • Elle a 𲵲é un film le week-end dernier - She watched a film last weekend.‎

Here are some useful past time phrases:‎

FrenchEnglish
hieryesterday
hier soiryesterday evening / last night
lundi dernierlast Monday
la semaine dernièrelast week
le mois dernierlast month
l’année dernièrelast year

How to form the passé composé ‎

To form the passé composé, you need three parts:‎
‎1. A noun or pronoun such as je (I), tu (you), or il/elle (/).‎
2. An auxiliary verb - this is either avoir (to have) or êٰ (to be).‎
‎3. A past participle such as dzé (played) or 𲵲é (ɲٳ).‎

The auxiliary verb avoir needs to change according to who did the action (I, you, ‎he, she, etc) but the past participle stays the same.‎

Forming past participles with regular verbs

Regular -ER verbs

Most verbs in French end with -er. To form the past participle of an -ER verb, you need ‎to remove the -er from the infinitive and add :‎

  • jouer (to play) - j’ai joué - I played.
  • manger (to eat) - il a mangé - He ate.
  • habiter (to live) - tu as habité ù? - Where did you live?‎
  • regarder (to watch) - j’ai regardé - I watched.

Regular -IR verbs

To make the past participle of a regular -IR verb, you need to remove the -ir from the ‎infinitive and add -i:‎

  • finir (to finish) - j’ai fini - I finished.‎
  • choisir (to choose) - tu as choisi? - Did you choose?

Regular -RE verbs

To form the past participle of regular -RE verbs, you remove the -re from the infinitive ‎and add -u:‎

  • vendre (to sell) - j’ai vendu - I sold.
  • entendre (to hear) - elle a entendu - she heard.

‎ Irregular past participles in the passé composé

Some common verbs have irregular past participles in the passé composé. This means ‎that they don’t follow the same rules as regular verbs.

Here are some useful irregular verbs and their past participles with examples:‎

Englishfrench infinitivepast participleExample
to haveavoireuJ’ai eu un accident‎ - I had an accident.‎
to beêٰééTu as éé malade? - Have you been ill?‎
to dofairefaitIl a fait ses devoirs - He did his homework.‎
to drinkboirebuElle a bu du jus d’orange - She drank orange juice.‎
to takeprendreprisJ’ai pris une photo - ‎I took a photo. ‎

Forming the passé composé with êٰ

With some verbs, such as aller, you need to use the auxiliary verb êٰ, followed by a ‎past participle:‎

  • Je suis allé au supermarché - I went to the supermarket.‎
  • Tu es allé à Nottingham? - Did you go to Nottingham?‎
  • Il est allé au parc - He went to the park.‎

If you are talking to or about a female person, the past participle needs to agree with the ‎person as an adjective would. An ‘e’ is added to the end of the past participle.‎ This is only when the auxiliary verb is êٰ.‎

  • Je suis allée à Nice - I (female) went to Nice.‎
  • Tu es allée en Espagne? - Did you (female) go to Spain?‎
  • Elle est allée au centre sportif - She went to the sports centre.‎

Here are some other useful verbs that take êٰ as their auxiliary verb, with some ‎examples:‎

EnglishFrench infinitivePast participleExample
to stayresteréJe suis é(e) chez moi - I stayed at home.‎
to leave / go outsortirsortiElle est sortie de la maison - She left the house.‎
to arrivearriveréTu es é(e) quand? - When did you arrive?‎

Quiz

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Game - FestiLingo: French

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