“Please don’t use the passé simple tense in your essay.”
This is the first sentence our professor told us, a group of French college students, as we were about to take an exam.
“Most French college students don’t know how to use the passé simple properly”, he went on.
My professor was right. Most French people don’t know how to use the passé simple properly because they rarely need to use it.
This is great news for you as a French learner, because it means you probably don’t need to bother learning this complicated tense.
if your only goal is to communicate with locals, you only need to know two French past tenses: le passé composé and l’imparfait.
Today’s article will show you when and how to use the passé composé! You will see, it’s not that complicated!
When should you use the passé composé?
The bad news is that French people use several past tenses.
The good news is that le passé composé is the most common tense and that you can already express yourself well if it’s the only French past tense you know.
Le passé composé is the equivalent of:
- The simple past (j’ai fait, I did)
- The present perfect (j’ai fait, I have done)
You use it to highlight the consequences of past actions and to talk about:
- Completed actions.
- Repeated actions.
- Series of actions.
- Conditions in likely situations.
How to conjugate verbs in the passé composé tense
The passé composé is a compound tense, meaning you need two components to conjugate a verb.
- A helping verb (être or avoir) conjugated in the present tense.
- The past participle of the verb you want to conjugate.
Let’s see how this works in practice!
#1 Choose your helping verb
The first step to conjugating a verb in the passé composé is to find out what helping verb (also called auxiliary verb) it uses: être or avoir.
Avoir
Avoir (to have) is the most common helping verb.
If you ever find yourself in the middle of a conversation wondering whether to use avoir or être to conjugate in the passé composé, choose avoir. It’s the most common helping verb and is likely to be the one you need.
Once you know the verb you want to conjugate in the passé composé uses “avoir”, you simply need to conjugate avoir in the present tense and add the past participle.
Conjugation |
Translation |
|
| J’ai | I have | |
| Tu as | You have | |
| Il/elle/on a | He/she/it has | |
| Nous avons | We have | |
| Vous avez | You have | |
| Ils/elles ont | They have |
Être
Être is less common than “avoir” as a helping verb but a few common French verbs use it when conjugated in the passé composé.
An easy way to remember some of these verbs is to use the Dr and Mrs Vandertrampp mnemonics.
Each letter in the sentence Dr and Mrs Vandertrampp represents the beginning of a verb that uses être as a helping verb when conjugated in the passé composé.
- Devenir
- Revenir
- Mourir
- Retourner
- Sortir
- Venir
- Arriver
- Naitre
- Descendre
- Entrer
- Rentrer
- Tomber
- Rester
- Aller
- Monter
- Partir
- Passer
Other verbs that use être include:
- All reflexive verbs (verbs that use “se”.)
- Some verbs indicating movement or a change of state.
Once you know the verb you want to conjugate in the passé composé uses être, it’s time to conjugate être in the present tense
Conjugation |
Translation |
|
| Je suis | I am | |
| Tu es | You are | |
| Il/elle/on est | He/she/it is | |
| Nous sommes | We are | |
| Vous êtes | You are | |
| Ils/elles sont | They are |
#2 Add the past participle
Verbs in the passé composé are formed by putting together a helping verb (être or avoir) conjugated in the present tense + a past participle.
Once you know what helping verb to use, all you need to do is add the past participle of the verb you want to conjugate.
The majority of French verbs are regular and forming their past participle is easy.
Simply use the recipe below:
Regular ER verbs => é
Regular IR verbs => i
Regular RE verbs => u
Manger => J’ai mangé
Finir => J’ai fini
Vendre => J’ai vendu
There are also a few irregular verb patterns:
- Faire, dire and other verbs in ire => it
- Connaitre and other verbs in aitre => u
- Venir and other verbs in enir => enu
- Prendre and other verbs in -endre => pris
Some irregular verbs won’t match any of these patterns, if that’s the case, you need to look up the individual past participle conjugation.
Here are a few common irregular verbs to get you started:
Aller
Pronoun |
Conjugation |
Translation |
| Je | suis allé | I went |
| Tu | es allé | You went |
| Il/elle/on | est allé | He/she/it went |
| Nous | sommes allés | We went |
| Vous | êtes allés | You went |
| Ils/elles | sont allés | They went |
Avoir
Pronoun |
Conjugation |
Translation |
| J’ | ai eu | I had |
| Tu | as eu | You had |
| Il/elle/on | a eu | He/she/it had |
| Nous | avons eu | We had |
| Vous | avez eu | You had |
| Ils/elles | ont eu | They had |
Être
Pronoun |
Conjugation |
Translation |
| J’ | ai été | I was |
| Tu | as été | You were |
| Il/elle/on | a été | He/she/it was |
| Nous | avons été | We were |
| Vous | avez été | You were |
| Ils/elles | ont été | They were |
Pouvoir
Pronoun |
Conjugation |
Translation |
| J’ | ai pu | I could |
| Tu | as pu | You could |
| Il/elle/on | a pu | He/she/it could |
| Nous | avons pu | We could |
| Vous | avez pu | You could |
| Ils/elles | ont pu | They could |
#3 Make the verb agree in number and gender
Passé composé agreement of verbs using être as a helping verb
Verbs using être as a helping verb to form their passé composé agree in gender and number with the subject.
- Je suis arrivé(e) => you add a e if the subject if female.
- Ils sont arrivé(s) (you add a “s” is the subject is plural).
- Elles sont arrivé(es) ( you add a e plus a s if the subject is plural and female.)
If the subject is a group of 10 women and 1 man, you are supposed to act as if the entire group was male because French grammar considers that male always wins.
There is, however, a growing number of people who refuse to follow (and even teach) this rule they consider sexist.
Passé composé agreement of verbs using avoir as a helping verb
Verbs using avoir in the passé composé only need to agree with preceding direct objects.
A simple way to know whether a verb has a preceding direct object is to ask what? after the verb.
La tarte qu’elle a mangée était excellente.
The tart she ate was excellent.
Here you can say, she ate what? The tart. Since tart comes before the verb and is female, you need to agree in number and add a “e” to mangé.
If this all sounds complicated don’t worry.
While it takes a while to get used to all these new conjugations, mistakes will rarely prevent you from being understood. In fact, the French regularly make mistakes when they use the passé composé.
Learn to conjugate avoir and être, focus on learning the most common patterns and you will be able to correctly conjugate verbs in the passé composé in the majority of cases.
Ching
May 10, 2019 at 11:52 pmIn a sentence such as “Je conduiais” – “I drove”, why there is no helping verb?
thanks in advance
Tauras
May 13, 2019 at 5:32 pmBecause you use IMPARFAIT in this sentence, and helping words are only needed in PASSE COMPOSE 😀
Lora Albright
April 18, 2019 at 6:35 pmOh, Monsieur Houy,
One more question, please. I work with my students on the pronunciation of the “eu” in words like “deux,” and “peur,” and “neuf.” I’m an American, so I practice as much as I can and listen to the actors in French movies when they say words with those letters.
In your lesson today, I’m reminded that the past participle “eu” as in “J’ai eu,” (I had) does not have the sound of peur, deux or neuf.
I thought perhaps you might be able to shed some light on one of those interesting French mysteries! Merci ?
Lora Albright
April 18, 2019 at 6:28 pmI always enjoy what you write and share! Thank you!
helping hand
April 5, 2019 at 12:57 pmyes,that is very important,but please respect that other people are trying to learn as well,but are correct be careful on how you use è and é these two define the pronunciation of the word you see or right.
Samuel
March 29, 2019 at 9:34 pmMy question is how can some explain terms of passé compose with avoir
Nancy
January 3, 2019 at 5:55 pmWhenever I use the passé composé it is for me to express something that happened in the past and hasn’t happened again. . . or isn’t likely to reoccur. Whenever I use the imparfait, it’s for me to express an emotion (which can change minute by minute) or an action that continues to the present-day. If we listened better to people when they spoke, we’d be able to understand that their use of p.c. or imp. is personal also–what may be a one-time experience for me may be continual feelings or actions for another person. Language is dynamic and most of the time not static.
Joshua Lee
October 22, 2018 at 9:28 amHow do I know when an verb that ends with “-ir” should change to either “-i”, “-u”, “-ert”, or “-is”. I don’t see any patterns to this so it is really hard for me to understand and learn. Is there any particular rules to this? Not just the “-ir” verbs but all the other verbs as well.
khushi
December 10, 2018 at 3:52 pm: for ir ending verbs we remove ir amd put a i
: for er ending verbs we remove er and put è
:for re ending verbs we remove re and put u
There are some exceptions in each case too
Inspector
January 3, 2019 at 5:47 pm-é not -è for -er verbs n the Perfect!!!
Back to School with you!!!
gaby browne
October 10, 2018 at 5:03 pmi really dont understand where you have to add an s,e,es ect.
its reeeeeeealy confusing
ella
October 24, 2018 at 3:23 pmFor etre verbs, so mrs van der tramp. you just have to make the verb agree with the subject. for feminine it is an extra e, for masculine plural it is an extra s, for feminine plural it is an es.
for example: she went= elle est allee
they went (m)= ils sont alles
they went (f)= elles sont allees
Epicilluminati (Jace)
November 13, 2018 at 3:31 amHey gaby, i have a test on this tmr lol. Studying late at night rn. Anyways:
If the subject is plural –> add “s” to end of verb.
Subject is female –> add “e” to end of verb.
Subject is both plural AND female, add “es”.
Hope this helps!
btw this article will hopefully let me ace tmr’s test.
>.<
miral
November 19, 2018 at 9:54 pmwell its really simple , you add e if the subject is female , and you add s if the subject is plural , and es if the subject is plural and female at the same time . so its all about the subject here ,
for example : la tarte qu’elle mangée etait excellente
tarte is the subject and its female so you add e to mangé,,
translation : the tart she ate was excellent
i hope it was helpful.
Jessica
October 3, 2018 at 10:08 pmwow thank you! this has helped A LOT!!
Maryam K
September 27, 2018 at 4:21 pmHi!
I was wondering what the rule is about adding the two s’s to the conjugation. I’m having a lot of trouble understanding it. Thank you!!!
Bob
August 18, 2018 at 8:40 amHi how do you know whether to use le passe compose or l’imparfait… As in, what is the difference between these two? Thanks
mac
December 17, 2018 at 6:43 pmpasse compose is used for quick actions or occurances that happened in the past. Imparfait is for things that happened over a long period of time or was habitual in the past.
That’s why we use imparfait for past ages (because you were a certain age for a full year): “quand j’avais 15 ans.”
Jean
March 5, 2018 at 10:22 pmIt doesn’t seem as though you’ve mentioned that some verbs ending in aitre like naître have unusual past participles like né, née.
Jane
November 10, 2018 at 8:12 pmI believe that naître is an irregular verbe, and it would have a different ending than connaître.
Kris Schneider
March 5, 2018 at 6:38 pmYou don’t need to know the passé simple? Nonsense. What if you want to read a book in French?
That’s like saying you don’t need to know the subjonctif.
Benjamin Houy
March 6, 2018 at 3:41 pmYou are right, I should have given more context. What I meant is that most French learners don’t need to learn the passé composé because their only goal is to communicate with locals.
I completely agree that it’s a useful tense to know to read books. I actually updated the article to reflect that :).
Harvey
January 22, 2018 at 5:53 pmIm so excited to learn any of the french lessons… but sometimes im just feeling confused of them… and i couldnt even ask anyone about it… i have completely understood even after reading such a very helpful article… i didnt really understand when to add the ” e ” after le passé composé which is using ” Avoir ” as the helping verbs… and now i already understood tho..merci beaucoup pour votre aide monsier Ben… je l’apprecie beaucoup :))
michael fox
November 23, 2017 at 5:57 amI don’t think that “je suis fatigué” is an example of the passé composé
Benjamin Houy
November 23, 2017 at 9:59 amThanks Michael, it’s corrected.
Kathryn
November 22, 2017 at 2:59 amThis is an important lesson for people. I feel as though I always know what I want to say, but can’t because I haven’t mastered the passé composé.
Benjamin Houy
November 22, 2017 at 11:35 amI hope this lesson helped you :).