passecompose

Le Passé Composé

Have you ever used the “passé compos

” ?

Avez-vous jamais employé le passé composé?

just did. French ha

it, and

as you can see above,

so does English.

In English, one says

“Have you traveled”? Yes, I have traveled (“yes, I’ve traveled”).

“Avez-vous voyagé?” “Oui, j’ai voyagé”

, say the French.

As you can see, the

passé compos

is composed, of two parts.

The first part is the verb “to have”(with exceptions of course

, see end.

the second part is what is called the “

participe passé

”

A
l
o
h
a

F
r
a
n
c
e

Then you add the participe passé.
In English the common form of the past participle ends in “ed” :
danced, shopped, stayed etc. French also has regular forms
of the passé composé:.

For ER VERBS, REGULAR
(first conjugation).
The participe passé ends with É
(drop the R, add an accent,
the sound stays the same).
So you get chanté, dansé,
changé, etc Here are some that
resemble English:

For IR VERBS, REGULAR
(Second conjugation verbs
they all end with IR but not OIR)
The participe passé ends in I
(the R drops out):
Fini, réussi, choisi, réfléchi....
.
For RE VERBS, REGULAR
(3rd conjugation verbs end in RE)
The participe passé ends in U
(U replaces RE):
Répondu, entendu, attendu,
.vendu, rendu……

So you will have:
J’ai.. Chanté, dansé, changé, fini,
réussi, choisi, obéi, réfléchi,
répondu, entendu, attendu,
vendu, rendu……

Tu as.. Chanté, dansé, changé,
fini, réussi, choisi, réfléchi,
répondu, entendu, attendu,
vendu, rendu……

And so forth.

So first
Avoir (to have).
J”ai
Tu as
Il/Elle/On a

Nous avons
Vous avez
Ils ont

Admiré
Aidé
Amélioré
Appelé
Apprécié
Arrangé
Assisté(à)
Changé
Cherché
Commandé
Commencé
Compté
Conseillé
Continué
Dancé
Décidé
Demandé
Dépensé
Désiré
Diné
Discuté
Donné
Employé
Envoyé
Épousé
Essayé
Étudié
Excusé

Expliqué
Habité
Invité
Laissé
Mangé
Marché
Montré
Parlé
Payé
Pensé
Porté
Possédé
Préféré
Préparé
Présenté
Refusé
Regardé
Regretté
Répété
Rêvé
Tenté(de)
Touché
Tourné
Travaillé
Traversé
Trouvé
Visité
Voyagé

PARTICIPE PASSE WITH ETRE.

the case of certain verbs, AVOIR

replaced with ÊTRE.

Here is the verb ÊTRE:

suis

il/elle/on est

The verbs which use être

instead of avoir

(verbs of mo

ion or

lack of motion

some

irregular

aller- to go                          Je suis allé
arriver - to arrive                Je suis arrivé
descendre - to go down    Je suis descendu
entrer (rentrer) - to enter    Je suis entré
monter - to climb                Je suis monté
mourir- to die                      Je suis mort
naitre - to be born             Je suis né
partir - to leave                   Je suis parti
passer - to pass                 Je suis passé
rester - to stay                    Je suis resté
retourner - to return            Je suis retourné
sortir - to go out                 Je suis sorti
tomber - to fall                    Je suis tombé
venir - to come                   Je suis venu

Devenir, revenir also take être as do all
verbs based on the above verbs.
Monter, descendre sortir and passer are
also conjugated with avoir, in which case
they have an object and their meaning
changes slightly:
-Ils ont passé la nuit à l'hotel.
(They spent the night at the hotel)
-Elle a monté la valise.
(She brought up the suitcase)
-J'ai sorti le chien. (I took the dog out).

Also, with être the participe passé is treated
like an adjective and agrees with the subject
(add “e” if the subject is feminine, “s” for
plural)
Don't try to make sense out of this, it's just a
rule. If anything, it is akin to a reflexive verb
without a pronoun:
Je me suis lavé : I washed myself
Je (me) suis allé: I took myself / I went.

nous sommes
vous êtes
ils sont

Le Passé Composé

USAGE

We have seen that the English parallel to

the

Passé

Composé is

“ I have traveled”

(

J’ai

voyag

In English, however, one

tends to

say

traveled

This

is the

simple past, and for

this

simple past in

French

you must use either

the

Passé

Composé or the

Imparfait.

RULE: If the simple past does not mean

“was……….ing” or “used to………”

(I was looking, I used to look)

use

the passé compos

EX:

j’ai

cherché partout

I looked everywhere

EXCEPTION

DESCRIPTIONS

Most descriptions mean “was or were….

ing” so

the

rule applies.

In some cases, however, it is not so:

The river flowed

without a break

If this is a description (characteristic of

the

river), you

do not use the passé

compos

but

rather the imparfait.

However the same sentence stating a

fact

rather than

being a description

would tak

the

Passé Composé:

La rivière a coulé

ans répit

MENTAL ACTIONS

With

verbs like

savoir, penser, croire, vouloir

, désirer

the imparfait is usually used.

However, if the mental action is short

lived and

definitely over, it’s usually the

passé composé.

EX:

Je croyais que

…(I believed

that…imparfait)

Je l’ai cru

(I believed him, passé

composé).

Je le savais

(I knew it, imparfait)

Quand je l’ai su

(when I found out, p

c.)

Je pensais que

……(I thought that,

imparfait)

J’y ai pensé

(I thought of it, passé

composé).

REPETITIONS

You use the passé compos

for

repetitions

only if the

amount of times is

clarified.

Je l’ai vu 3 fois

. I saw it 3 times

J’ai mangé ici

lusieurs fois

I ate here a

everal

times.

AVOIR

and

ÊTRE

(to have and to be)

AVOIR

is mostly in the imparfait but can be in

the

passé

compos

if the event is rather

well

defined in

time and

short lived.

EX:

J’avais une voiture

( I had a car, imparfait)

J’ai eu un accident

. I had an accident.

ÊTRE

is almost always in the imparfait.

A rule of thumb is to use the passé

compos

with être

if you use the “I’ve

been” form in

English:

I’ve been to her house

J’ai été chez elle

This can also mean I went to her house as

one

can use

the passé composé

être to mean "to go":

J’ai été au magasin pour acheter du pain.

I went to the store to buy bread.

ONCEPT

With the passé composé,

ou are

simply reporting a fact in the past .

-You do not intend to bring the reader to

the

past but

simpl

wish to inform him of

situation.

The passé composé implies a definite time frame even

if it is not mentioned.

-Actions in the passé compos

succeed each

other

while in the imparfait they tend to happen

simultaneously.

RULES

With the Passé Composé, the rules that apply

to verbs

are applied to the auxiliary,

avoir

or être

Rule:

1.NEGATIVE: Put

NE……PAS

around the verb.

Here, one puts

NE………PAS

around

avoir

Je n’ai pas mangé

You will not say “je n’ai

mangé

pas” just as in

English

you will not

say “I

have eaten not”.

2. PRONOUN BEFORE

THE VERB.

The

object

pronoun goes before

avoir.

Je l’ai acheté.

I (have)

bought it.

As you can see, this is very

different from the

English

where

the pronoun goes not

only after

“Avoir” but

also

after the past

participle.

3. SUBJECT AFTER VERB IN INVERSION.

The subject goes after avoir in an inverted

question,

just like in

nglish:

Avez-vous mangé

? (Have you eaten?)

If you put the subject after the past participle, it

would

be akin to saying "Have eaten you?

english.

One often finds the past construction of one action

occuring with a situation as background:

I was studying when you called.

rench, the background situation (was......ing) would

be in the imparfait and the occurrence in the passé

composé:

J'étudiais quand tu as téléphoné.

For a more thorough understanding of the

usage of the passé composé, visit the

Imparfait

section

his présentation of the

passé composé was prepared by

All comments, suggestions and

corrections are welcome

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