Passé composé

[left]Passé composé is the most commonly used past tense in the modern French language. It is used to express an action that has been completed at the time of speech, or at some (possibly unknown) time in the past. Passé composé originally corresponded in function to the English present perfect, and is still occasionally used as such (ex: J'ai fini = I have finished), while its main use is as a past tense. It is commonly used as a "narration tense" for oral and written narration. Narration tense is a feature of the Romance languages, which divide events in a story between timeline events, which appear successively in the narration in the same order they happened in real life (or "fictional real life"), and background events, which do not follow such a strict order of appearance and are to be situated relatively to timeline events (anterior, simultaneous, posterior). Narration tense is used for timeline events only, so string of successive events are frequently expressed with passé composé. Note that in formal writing, even for children, narration is usually done with the passé simple instead of the passé composé.

Passé Composé is formed using an auxiliary verb and the past participle of a verb. The auxiliary verb is typically avoir ("to have") but sometimes être ("to be")

This is the conjugation of avoir:

j'ai (I have) nous avons (we have)
tu as (you have) vous avez (you have)
il/elle/on a (he/she/it has) ils/elles ont (they have)

This is the conjugation of être:

je suis (I am) nous sommes (we are)
tu es (you are) vous êtes (you are)
il/elle/on est (he/she/it is) ils/elles sont (they are)

The following is a list of verbs which use être as their auxiliary verbs in Passé Composé:

1. devenir – to become – devenu
2. revenir – to come back – revenu
3. monter – to climb – monté
4. rester – to stay – resté
5. sortir – to exit – sorti
6. venir – to come – venu
7. aller – to go – allé
8. naître – to be born – né
9. descendre – to descend – descendu
10. entrer – to enter – entré
11. retourner – to return – retourné
12. tomber – to fall – tombé
13. rentrer- to re-enter- rentré
14. arriver – to arrive – arrivé
15. mourir – to die – mort
16. partir – to leave – parti
17. passer – to pass by (this case only) – passé
18. décéder – to decease – décédé

The verbs that use être as an auxiliary verb are intransitive verbs that usually indicate motion or change of state, and can be summarized as in an acrostic "Dr. and Mrs. Van der Tramp" or "Mrs. D.R. Van der Tramp". 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 Eg. Il a sorti un outil pour le réparer.

In addition to the above verbs, all reflexive/pronominal verbs use être as their auxiliary verb.

To form the past participle for -ER verbs, drop the -er and add -é.

parler (to speak) - er + é = parlé (spoken)
aller (to go) - er + é = allé (gone)
arriver (to arrive) - er + é = arrivé (arrived)

To form the past participle for regular -IR verbs, drop the -ir and add -i.

finir (to finish) - ir + i = fini (finished)
choisir (to choose) - ir + i = choisi (chosen)
sortir (to go out) - ir + i = sorti (gone out)

To form the past participle for regular -RE verbs, drop the -re and add -u.

vendre (to sell) - re + u = vendu (sold)
fondre (to melt) - re + u = fondu (melted)
descendre (to descend) -re + u = descendu (descended)

* Many irregular past participles must be memorized separately, of which the following are a few:

acquérir: acquis (acquired)
apprendre: appris (learnt/learned)
atteindre: atteint (attended)
avoir: eu (had)
boire: bu (drunk/drunken)
comprendre: compris (understood)
conduire: conduit (driven)
connaître: connu (known)
construire: construit (constructed)
courir: couru (run)
couvrir: couvert (covered)
craindre: craint (feared)
croire: cru (believed)
décevoir: déçu (disappointed)
découvrir: découvert (discovered)
devoir: dû (had to)
dire: dit (said)
écrire: écrit (written)
être: été (been)
faire: fait (done, made)
instruire: instruit (prepared)
joindre: joint (joined)
lire: lu (read)
mettre: mis (put, placed)
mourir: mort (died)
offrir: offert (offered)
ouvrir: ouvert (opened)
naître: né (born)
paraître: paru (come out)
peindre: peint (painted)
pouvoir: pu (been able to)
prendre: pris (taken)
produire: produit (produced)
recevoir: reçu (received)
savoir: su (known)
surprendre: surpris (surprised)
souffrir: souffert (hurt)
suivre: suivi (followed)
tenir: tenu (held, holden)
venir: venu (come)
vivre: vécu (lived)
voir: vu (seen)
vouloir: voulu (wanted)

The passé composé is formed by the auxiliary verb followed by the past participle:

J'ai vu (I saw)

Tu as parlé (You spoke)

Le garçon est sorti (The boy went out)

* The passé composé is usually translated into English as a simple past tense, "I saw." More rarely it might be translated as a present perfect, "I have seen," or an emphatic past tense, "I did see."

* The Past Participle almost always agrees with the subject when the auxiliary verb is être. 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. Recall that in French, agreement is accomplished by adding an -e to the end of the past participle if the subject/direct object in question is feminine and an -s if it is plural.

Les hommes sont arrivés. (The men arrived.)

Les filles sont venues. (The girls came.)

Nous nous sommes levé(e)s. (We got up, extra e required if nous refers to a group of females.)

J'ai vu la voiture. (I saw the car) Je l'ai vue. (I saw it, referring to the car)

Les voitures que j'ai vues étaient rouges. (The cars that I saw were red.)

* For more information, see French verbs.