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How to use the passé composé in French
The past tenses in French
The different past tenses in French do not necessarily correspond to the English past tenses. Among them, we find the passé composé, the imparfait, the passé simple, the plus-que-parfait, the passé antérieur... This module focuses only on the passé composé, for the other tenses, just have a look at the corresponding modules!
So, let's start. The passé composé can be translated in three different ways :
I ate = j'ai mangé
I did eat = j'ai mangé
I have eaten = j'ai mangé
The context will tell you how j'ai mangé is to be understood.
How to build the passé composé ?
You need two elements : être (to be) or avoir (to have) conjugated in the present tense + the past participle of the verb :
I ran a lot last month = j'ai beaucoup couru le mois dernier (ai + couru)
she came late = elle est venue tard (est + venue)
did he sleep here last week= Il a dormi ici la semaine dernière? (a + dormi)
Have they arrived yet = sont-ils déjà arrivés? (sont + arrivés)
You haven't tried yet = tu n'as pas encore essayé. (as + essayé)
He didn't leave yesterday = il n'est pas parti hier (est + parti)
So the two questions are :
What is the past participle of the verb?
How do we know if it's to be (être) or to have (avoir)?
Let's start with the past participle!
How to form the past participle ?
Some verbs follow a pattern and thus, the past paticiple can be easily found:
- Verbs of the 1st group (ending with -er) will take "-é" instead of "-er':
Let's take manger (to eat). First, you remove "-er". You have "mang". Then add "-é" and you have the past participle mangé
- Most verbs ending in "-ir" will take "-i "instead of "-ir" at the end:
Let's try with dormir (to sleep). Just remove "-r" and you have the past participle dormi
- Irregular verbs ending in "ir"
Unfortunately, not all the verbes ending with "-ir" will follow this pattern.
Some will have "-u" instead of "-ir", lile courir (ro run) which gives couru, venir (o come) venu, tenir (to hold) tenu, vêtir (to dress) vêtu + all similar verbes like revenir (to come back), détenir (to possess), retenir (to retain), dévêtir (to undress) etc.
mourir (to die) will have mort as past participle
offrir (to offer) and souffrir (to suffer) will respectively have offert and souffert as past participles
acquérir (to acquire) will have acquis as past participle
- Most verbs ending in "-re" will take "-u" instead of '-re':
Let's do it with entendre (to hear). Remove "-re" and you have "entend", then add "-u" and you have the past participle entendu
Again, there are some exceptions. Some will have "-is" at the end of the past participle, like prendre (to take) pris, apprendre (to learn) appris, mettre (to put) mis
- Verbs ending with "-ire" will have "-it":
dire (to say) dit, écrire (to write) écrit, construire (to build) construit, conduire (to drive) conduit
All the patterns mentionned above can help you guess the past participle of the verb, but unfortuantely there are lots of irregular verbs and their past participles just have to be learnt by heart like the irregular verbs in English. You'll find a list of the most common verbs at the end of this module.
Now let's focus on the auxiliary verbs, être and avoir.
être or avoir in the passé composé?
The basic rule says that verbs referring to movement (meaning that there is an actual movement from one place to another) or state will be conjugated with être, whereas the other verbs will be conjugated with avoir. We could also explain it this way: when a verb has a direct object, its passé composé is with avoir. To find if there is a direct object, you can simply ask the question what? or who? referring to the verb.
J'ai pris le train tous les jours (I took the train every day) = j'ai pris quoi? Answer "le train". le train is the direct object (What did I take? the train). Therefore we have avoir.
J'ai vu l'enfant devant la fenêtre (I saw the child in front of the window) = Je vois qui? Answer "l'enfant". l'enfant is the direct object. (Who did I see? The child.) Therefore we have avoir.
Je suis monté dans la chambre (I went up to the room) = Here we have a verb indicating a movement, therefore we have être. Moreover, we can't ask je suis monté qui ou quoi? (I went up who or what? does not make sense). So there is no possible direct object.
Nous sommes devenus riches (we became rich) = The verb indicates a state, "rich", so it is conjugated with être.
The passé composé of reflexive verbs is always with être. Reflexive verbs are verbs built with the particle "se": se regarder (to look at each other), se rappeler (to remember), se réveiller (to wake up), se lever (to get up) etc.
Je me suis levé à sept heures = I got up at seven o'clock.
Tu t'es rappelé ton voyage. = You remembered your trip.
Nous nous sommes regardés. = We looked at each other.
Be careful! Some verbs can be conjugated with either être or avoir. Depending on the auxiliary, they will have a different meaning.
Let's take descendre. Tu es descendu de la colline hier matin. = You came down the hill last morning. (descendre indicates a movement, "to come down", and is therefore conjugated with être.)
Tu as descendu le vélo du grenier. = You took the bike down from the attic.
(here we have descendre quelque chose "to take something down" The bike is the direct object. Therefore avoir)
Agreements in the passé composé
Now that you know how to build the passé composé in French, let's turn our attention to the agreement of the participe passé (past participle). You may have noticed in the examples above, that the endings (the agreement) of the participe passé can vary. Sometimes it is just "-é", sometimes "-és" or "-ées", "i", "ie", "ies" etc.
You have to distinguish three cases :
agreement of the participe passé with être
With être as auxiliary verb, the participe passé will agree with the subject of the verb. It means that if the subject is feminine, the participe passé will add "-e" at the end, if the subject is plural it will add "-s", and if it is feminine and plural it will add -es". With a masculine and singular subject, the participe passé stays unchanged. Let's see a few examples:
Je suis parti. = I left (the subject "je" is masculine, because parti is unchanged.)
Je suis partie. = I left (the subject 'je" is feminine because there is a "-e" at the end of partie.)
Les voitures sont garées. = The cars are parked (voitures is feminine and plural, so garé takes -es = garées)
Les éléphants sont fatigués. = The elephants are tired. (éléphants is masculine and plural, so fatigué takes -s = fatigués)
agreement of the participe passé with avoir
With avoir as auxiliary verb, the fundamental rule is that the participe passé stays unchanged, regardless of the subject:
Les filles ont gagné = The girls won
Elle a regardé la télévisio. = She watched TV.
Les éléphants ont mangé = The elephants ate.
However, there is one particular case which changes everything. When the COD (direct object of the sentence, which answers to who? or what? referring to the verb) is placed before the verb, then the participe passé will agree will this COD:
Ils ont vu les oiseaux. = They saw the birds. The COD is "les oiseaux". It comes after the verb "ont vu", therefore it has no influence on the rule and vu doesn't change.
Les oiseaux qu'ils ont vus... = The birds which they saw... The COD is still "les oiseaux", but this time it comes before ther verb "ont vus". It means that the participe passé will agree with this COD. Les oiseaux is masculine and plural, therefore vu becomes vus.
agreement of the participe passé with reflexive verbs.
As we have already seen earlier, reflexive verbs are verbs built with the particle "se" and are conjugated in the passé composé with être. However, when using a reflexive verb (se regarder, se laver, se rappeler etc...) in compound tenses like the passé composé, what is the ending of the past participle? They are conjugated with être in the passé composé, so the participe passé should agree with the subject, right? Well... It depends.
Here you must distinguish three cases:
- Example 1: Elle s’est lavée. (She washed herself)
In this example, the reflexive pronoun s' is actually the direct object of the verb and refers to the subject itself (she washed herself). Since the direct object precedes the verb, the participe passé agrees with it:
→ lavée (the COD and the subject are the same : elle)
Tipps: there is an easy way to know if se, me, te, nous etc... is COD or not. You take the verb without se, and see if it is conjugated with a COD or not. In French, it is always laver quelque chose or laver quelqu'un. (to wash something or somebody). You can't just say je lave, or the person you are talking to is certain to ask you Tu laves quoi?. (you're washing what?). Therefore, laver always has a COD and se, me, te, nous etc. will be COD in se laver.
- Example 2: Elle s’est lavé les mains. (She washed her hands)
Here, les mains is the direct object of the verb, while s' functions as an indirect object (elle a lavé les mains à qui?) Since the direct object comes after the verb, there is no agreement:
→ lavé
- Example 3: Les mains qu’elle s’est lavées plus tôt sont de nouveau sales. (The hands, which she washed earlier, are dirty again)
Here, the direct object les mains is placed before the verb (introduced by que), and s' is still indirect object. Therefore, the past participle agrees with the COD:
→ lavées (les mains is feminine and plural)
When to use the passé composé?
Now that you know how to build the passé composé, let's see when to use it and what it means. In French, there are several tenses associated with the past (passé simple, imparfait, plus-que-parfait etc.), and the passé composé is limited to certain contexts.
Single action or event in the past
When you want to talk about an action or an event which happened in the past, you usually use the passé composé :
J'ai gagné la course. = I won the race.
L'année dernière, j'ai étudié le français. = Last year, I studied French.
Je suis allée à Bordeaux il y a trois semaines. = I went to Bordeaux three weeks ago.
Single action or event in the past with visible results in the present
Je suis né en 1984 = I'm born in 1984 (and still alive)
J'ai appris le français à Paris. = I learnt English in Paris (and that's why I can speak French today)
Chain of events in the past in chronological order
La semaine dernière, Pierre est allé à Strasbourg. Il a fait des courses. Vers 20 heurs, il est rentré. = Last week, Pierre went to Strasbourg. He did some shopping. Around 8:00 p.m., he returned home.
This last example is typical of narratives in the past (reports of past events, short stories, novels etc.). In order to fully understand the passé composé, it is necessary to go through the module L'imparfait, especially to know the contexts in the past where passé composé can't be used.
List of the main irregular participes passés in French
Past participles ending in -u
avoir (to have) - eu
boire (to drink) - bu
connaître (to know) - connu
croire (to believe) - cru
devoir (have ton, must, to owe) - dû
lire (to read) - lu
pleuvoir (to rain) - plu
pouvoir (can, to be able to) - pu
recevoir (to receive) - reçu
savoir (to know) - su
voir (to see) - vu
vouloir (to want) - voulu
Past participles ending in -is
mettre (to put) - mis
prendre (to take) - pris
Past participles ending in -it
conduire (to drive) - conduit
dire (to say) - dit
écrire (to write) - écrit
Others
être (to be) - été
faire (to do, to make) - fait
offrir (to offer) - offert
ouvrir (to open) - ouvert