A-level French/Verbs/PC

The passé composé is the most common way to talk in the past tense in French. When to use the passé composé Être and Avoir 14 être verbs aller (to go) partir (to leave) arriver (to arrive) passer (to pass) descendre (to descend/ to go downstairs) rester (to stay) entrer (to enter) retourner (to return) monter (to climb) sortir (to go out) mourir (to die) tomber (to fall) naître (to be born) venir (to come) To create the passé compose you need to conjugate the verbs être or avoir. Être (to be) Avoir (to have) Most verbs are conjugated with avoir, however, there are 14 common verbs that are conjugated with être. You may have noticed that many of the 14 être verbs have to do with movement. Except naître (to be born) mourir (to die) and rester (to stay) these verbs are motion verbs. That doesn't mean however that all motion verbs use être in the passé composé. For instance, courir (to run) is conjugated with avoir. The reason these verbs are être verbs is because they are intransitive, that is they don't have a direct object. Examples of Intransitive Verbs (Etre verbs): He stayed two hours after the party. The leaf fell from the tree. The children went to school in the morning. Examples of Transitive Verbs (Avoir verbs): (The verb is in bold and its object is in italics) She picked up her purse. The boy kicked the soccer ball. Mother is making dinner tonight. + Conjugation of être (to be) Conjugation of avoir (to have) Je suis Nous sommes J'ai Nous avons Tu es Vous êtes Tu as Vous avez Il/Elle/On est Ils/Elles sont Il/Elle/On a Ils/Elles ont How to make the passé composé + Subject + Conjugation of être/avoir + past participle of the verb (to have) English translation Tu as lu You have read Nous avons mangé We ate/We have eaten Il est allé He went As you can see from the above table to form the passé composé you need to: Conjugate avoir or être change the verb to the past participle In the next sections you will be able to see examples of the passé composé with avoir and être, learn how to form the past participle in regular verbs, and learn the past participle in the most common irregular verbs. Avoir passé composé examples Ils ont mangé. They have eaten. J'ai dancé. I danced. Il a vu un chat. He saw a cat. Elle a vendu sa voiture. She sold her car. Être passé composé examples Je suis allé à la bibliothèque. I went to the library. Ils sont venus après l'école. They came home after school. La feuille est tombé de l'arbre. The leaf fell from the tree. Il est resté à l'école à jouer au basket. He stayed after school to play basketball. Forming the Past Participle Regular ER Verbs To form a past participle of –er verbs, drop the –er of the infinitives and add an é + Verb Drop ER Add É Past Participle English manger mang - er mang + é mangé to eat dancer danc - er danc + é dancé to dance payer pay - er pay + é payé to pay Regular IR Verbs To form a past participle of –ir verbs, drop the –ir of the infinitives and add an i + Verb Drop IR Add I Past Participle English finir fin - ir fin + i fini to finish réussir réuss - ir réuss + i réussi to succeed dormir dorm - ir dorm + i dormi to sleep Regular RE Verbs To form a past participle of –re verbs, drop the –re of the infinitives and add an u + Verb Drop RE Add U Past Participle English perdre perd - re perd + u perdu to lose vendre vend - re vend + u vendu to sell répondre répond - re répond + u répondu to answer Irregular Verbs This is a list of some of the most common irregualr verbs and their past participles. + Verb Past Participle Verb Past Participle avoir eu (had) boire bu (drank) conduire conduit (driven, drove) connaître connu (known, knew) courir couru (ran) croire cru (believed) devoir dû (had to, owed) dire dit (said, told) écrire écrit (written, wrote) être été (been, was) faire fait (made, done, did) falloir fallu (had to, should, was necessary) lire lu (read) mettre mis (put) mourir mort (died) naître né (born) ouvrir ouvert (opened) pleuvoir plu (rained) pouvoir pu (was able to) prendre pris (took) recevoir reçu (received) savoir su (knew) venir venu (came) vivre vécu (lived) voir vu (saw) vouloir voulu (wanted)