French Passé Composé
The passé composé is the default French past tense. It covers both "I did X" and "I have done X" in English. The shape is always: auxiliary (avoir or être) + past participle.
- J'ai parlé. (I spoke / I have spoken.)
- Nous avons mangé. (We ate / We have eaten.)
- Elle est partie. (She left / She has left.)
The two auxiliaries
The main puzzle of the passé composé is which auxiliary the verb takes.
Avoir is the default. Most verbs use it.
Être is used in two specific cases:
- A closed set of about fifteen intransitive verbs of movement or state.
- All reflexive verbs (se laver, se lever, s'appeler, etc.).
The être set: MRS VANDERTRAMP
A mnemonic. Each letter is the start of a verb in the closed set.
| Verb | Meaning | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| Mourir | to die | mort |
| Retourner | to return | retourné |
| Sortir | to go out | sorti |
| Venir | to come | venu |
| Arriver | to arrive | arrivé |
| Naître | to be born | né |
| Descendre | to go down | descendu |
| Entrer | to enter | entré |
| Rentrer | to come home | rentré |
| Tomber | to fall | tombé |
| Rester | to stay | resté |
| Aller | to go | allé |
| Monter | to go up | monté |
| Partir | to leave | parti |
| Passer | to pass by | passé |
Plus compounds: devenir (to become), revenir (to come back), repartir (to leave again). These are the only verbs that take être as their everyday auxiliary. Everything else uses avoir.
Reflexives
All reflexive verbs use être in compound tenses, regardless of meaning.
- Je me suis levé. (I got up.)
- Elle s'est lavée. (She washed.)
- Nous nous sommes couchés. (We went to bed.)
The reflexive pronoun stays before the auxiliary. The past participle agrees - see below.
The past participle
Three regular patterns, by verb ending.
| Ending | Drop and add | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -er | -er + é | parler -> parlé |
| -ir cluster | -ir + i | finir -> fini |
| -re cluster | -re + u | attendre -> attendu |
The three irregulars you must memorise from day one:
| Verb | Past participle | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| être | été | been |
| avoir | eu | had |
| faire | fait | done / made |
Other common irregulars that come up in the first month: voir -> vu, dire -> dit, prendre -> pris, mettre -> mis, écrire -> écrit, lire -> lu, boire -> bu, recevoir -> reçu, savoir -> su, pouvoir -> pu, vouloir -> voulu, devoir -> dû, courir -> couru, ouvrir -> ouvert, offrir -> offert.
Conjugation of avoir + past participle
Parler (to speak) in the passé composé:
| Subject | Form |
|---|---|
| je | j'ai parlé |
| tu | tu as parlé |
| il / elle / on | il a parlé |
| nous | nous avons parlé |
| vous | vous avez parlé |
| ils / elles | ils ont parlé |
The participle doesn't change. Avoir is conjugated; parlé stays the same for every subject.
Conjugation of être + past participle
Aller (to go) in the passé composé. With être, the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number, like an adjective.
| Subject | Form |
|---|---|
| je (masc) | je suis allé |
| je (fem) | je suis allée |
| tu (masc) | tu es allé |
| tu (fem) | tu es allée |
| il | il est allé |
| elle | elle est allée |
| on | on est allé |
| nous (masc) | nous sommes allés |
| nous (fem / mixed) | nous sommes allées |
| vous (masc sg) | vous êtes allé |
| vous (fem sg) | vous êtes allée |
| vous (masc pl) | vous êtes allés |
| vous (fem pl) | vous êtes allées |
| ils | ils sont allés |
| elles | elles sont allées |
The agreement is the same as any adjective: +e for feminine, +s for plural, +es for feminine plural.
The avoir agreement rule (flagged for attention)
With avoir, the past participle normally doesn't agree with anything. J'ai mangé une pomme - no agreement on mangé.
But: when a direct object goes before the verb (in the form of an object pronoun, a relative pronoun, or a question word), the past participle agrees with that preceding direct object.
- J'ai mangé la pomme. (no agreement - object after verb)
- Je l'ai mangée. (agreement - "la" pronoun before verb, feminine singular)
- Les pommes que j'ai mangées. (agreement - "les pommes" precedes the verb via "que")
This rule is real but unevenly enforced in spoken French. For Foundation tier, recognise it and don't drill it. It matters in writing.
Negation in the passé composé
Ne goes before the auxiliary, pas after it. The participle stays at the end.
- Je n'ai pas mangé. (I didn't eat.)
- Elle n'est pas partie. (She didn't leave.)
- Nous ne nous sommes pas couchés tard. (We didn't go to bed late.)
Worked examples
- Hier, j'ai vu un film au cinéma. (Yesterday I saw a film at the cinema.)
- Marie est née à Lyon en 1995. (Marie was born in Lyon in 1995.)
- Nous avons mangé dans un bon restaurant. (We ate in a good restaurant.)
- Ils sont arrivés en retard. (They arrived late.)
- Elle s'est levée tôt ce matin. (She got up early this morning.)
- J'ai fait mes devoirs et je suis sorti avec mes amis. (I did my homework and I went out with my friends.)
Common mistakes English speakers make
Defaulting to avoir for every verb: j'ai allé au cinéma is wrong, it's je suis allé au cinéma. Aller is in the être set. Forgetting the agreement with être: elle est allé is wrong, it's elle est allée. And using the wrong irregular participle - j'ai faisi, j'ai être, j'ai avoi are all wrong; the right forms are j'ai fait, j'ai été, j'ai eu.
See also
- The imparfait page covers the other Foundation-tier past tense.
- The passé composé vs imparfait page covers the decision rules side by side.
- The reflexive verbs page covers the present-tense use of reflexives that passé composé extends.
- The intermediate French grammar page covers Higher-tier irregular participles and the full agreement system.