Passé composé
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Passé Composé is the most commonly used past tense in the modern French language. It is used to express that an action has been completed at the time of speech, or at some (possibly unknown) time in the past. Passé Composé was originally a present perfect, and is still occasionally used as such (ex: Ça yest, j'ai fini = I'm 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 roman 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 don't 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. 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 a (he has) ils 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 est (he is) ils sont (they are)
The following is a list of verbs which use être as their auxiliary verbs in Passé Composé:
aller- to go arriver- to arrive descendre- to descend devenir- to become entrer- to enter monter- to climb mourir- to die naître- to be born partir- to leave passer (par)- to pass by/to go by (this case only) rentrer-to enter again rester- to stay retourner- to go back/to return revenir-to come back sortir- to go out tomber- to fall venir- to come
- An often used mnemonic device to remember these verbs is DRMRSVANDERTRAMPP, or DR & MRS VANDERTRAMPP or DR MRS P VANDERTRAMP
- Note that many of these verbs have to do with motion or movement
- In addition to the above verbs, all reflexive/pronominal verbs (se laver, se maquiller, s'asseoir, se raser, etc.) use être as their auxiliary verb.
To form the past participle for -ER verbs, simply 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 -IR verbs, simply 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 -RE verbs, simply 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)
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- Unfortunately there are quite a few irregular past participles that must be learnt:
acquérir: acquis (acquired) apprendre: appris (learnt) atteindre: atteint (attended) avoir: eu (had) boire: bu (drunken) comprendre: compris (understood) conduire: conduit (driven) connaître: connu (known) construire: construit (constructed) courir: couru (ran) couvrir: couvert (covered) craindre: craint (feared) croire: cru (believed) décevoir: déçu (disappointed) découvrir: découvert (discovered) devoir: dû (must) 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 (was born) paraître: paru (came out) peindre: peint (painted) pouvoir: pu (been able to) prendre: pris (taken) produire: produit (produced) recevoir: reçu (received) savoir: su (known) souffrir: souffert (hurt) suivre: suivi (followed) tenir: tenu (held) venir: venu (came) vivre: vécu (lived) voir: vu (seen) vouloir: voulu (wanted)
To form the complete Passé Composé simply use the following layout:
Auxiliary Verb + Past Participle
J'ai vu (I have seen)
Tu as parlé (You have spoken)
Il est sorti (He has gone out)
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- In addition to "have/has verbed", Passé Composé can be translated as "did verb" or simply "verbed". For instance, J'ai vu can be translated as 'I have seen' or 'I saw.'
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- Past Participles only change to feminine or plural forms after the auxiliary verb 'être.' It can also vary with the verb 'avoir' in a subordinate sentence where the complément d'objet direct precedes the past participle. Recall that in French an -e is added if the subject is feminine and an -s is added if the subject is plural.
Elle a voulu ses enfants. (She wanted her children) becomes Elle les a voulus. (She has wanted them. -- les is the direct object, before the verb, and is plural) , Ses enfants l'ont voulue (Her children have wanted her.) and: Ses filles l'ont voulue (Her daughters have wanted her)
Les hommes sont arrivés (The men have arrived.)
Les filles sont venues (The girls have come.)
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- For more information, see French verbs.
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- Here are some practice sentences to practice translating:
1 Vous avez pris. 2 Jacques est allé. 3 J'ai vendu. 4 Tu as fini? 5 Elles ont eu. 6 Nous sommes morts! 7 I have been. 8 You (sg.) were born. 9 Jean and Martin have fallen. 10 He has written. 11 We have come. 12 You (pl.) have drunk.
Answers: 1-You have taken/ 2-Jacques has gone/ 3-I have sold/ 4-You have finished ?/ 5-They have had/ 6-We have died/ 7-J'ai été/ 8-Tu es né(e)/ 9-Jean et Martin sont tombés/ 10-Il a écrit/ 11-Nous sommes venu(e)s/ 12-Vous avez bu
