Understanding Passé Composé

What is the French Passé Composé?

The passé composé is a French tense used for the past. The passé composé corresponds mostly to the English simple past or the present perfect.
The passé composé talks about specific actions that were completed in the past.
In spoken French language, the passé composé is always used instead of the passé simple.
We conjugate the passé composé using the auxiliary verbs avoir or être followed by the past participle (le participe passé) of the verb.

J’ai parlé, nous avons étudié, ils ont choisi, elles sont allées…

What is an Auxiliary Verb?

An auxiliary verb helps another verb to form a tense.

He has been gone for ever.
Has = auxiliary verb
Been = auxiliary verb
Gone = main verb

In English, there are three auxiliary verbs: to have, to be, to do, and some auxiliary words such as will, would, may, must, can , could.

In French, there are only two auxiliary verbs: avoir and être. And there are no auxiliary words. In French, we use verb endings to convey these meanings, or expressions.

A verb tense composed of an auxiliary verb and a main verb is called in grammar a compound tense, as opposed to a simple tense which uses only the main verb.

What is a Participle?

A participle is a verb form used with an auxiliary verb to form a tense, or when a verb is used as an adjective.

1. He has closed the window.
Has = auxiliary + closed = participle
=> compound tense: “has closed”.

2. He was closing the window.
Was = auxiliary + closing = participle
=> compound tense: “was closing”

3. He didn’t hear through the closed window.
The word “closed” in this sentence is a verb (”to close’) in its participle form.
It’s used here as an adjective to describe the word ‘window’.

French Passé Composé – Construction

Most verbs use “avoir”, to have to form their passé composé.

To have conjugation

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

A limited (but very commonly used) list of verbs use “Être”.

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

You will need to learn by heart the list of verbs using être for their passé composé (see below).

Follow the link to access my free lesson about être – the verb to be in French – all conjugations + audio recordings.

French Past participle

After you’ve conjugated avoir or être in the present tense, you then add the “main” verb in the past participle.

Regular ER verbs = é	Parler = parlé
Regular IR verbs = i	Fini = fini
Regular RE verbs = u	Vendre = vendu
Irregular verbs in IRE = it	Faire = fait Dire = dit Erire – écrit Conduire – conduit
Many irregular verbs = u	Venir = venu Tenir = tenu Devoir = dû Pouvoir = pu Vouloir = voulu Lire = lu Boire = bu Attendre = attendu Entendre = entendu Courir = couru Répondre = répondu
Many irregular verbs in IRE = it	Faire = fait Dire = dit Erire – écrit Conduire – conduit
Avoir	eu
Être	été

There are many irregular French past participle. The best is to learn them with an audio method and within the context of a story so you develop an ear for them (that’s how the French do it)

Master the French passé composé with my French audiobook method. All the grammatical explanations are illustrated by an ongoing story recorded at 2 different levels of enunciation (enunciated & modern). The Q & A section will entice you to practice out loud what you’ve learned and improve your confidence when speaking French.

Passé Composé Conjugations Examples

Here are some examples of passé composé conjugations.

Regular ER verbs – Parler

Conjugation	Usual translation
J’ai parlé	I spoke
Tu as parlé	You (1 person informal) spoke
Il, elle, on a parlé	He/she/it spoke
Nous avons parlé	We spoke
Vous avez parlé	You (1 formal or plural) spoke
Ils, elles	They spoke

Regular IR verbs – Finir

Conjugation	Usual translation
J’ai fini	I finished
Tu as fini	You (1 person informal) finished
Il, elle, on a fini	He/she/it finished
Nous avons fini	We finished
Vous avez fini	You (1 formal or plural) finished
Ils, elles ont fini	They finished

Have in Passé Composé – avoir

Conjugation	Usual translation
J’ai eu	I had
Tu as eu	You (1 person informal) had
Il, elle, on a eu	He/she/it had
Nous avons eu	We had
Vous avez eu	You (1 formal or plural) had
Ils, elles ont eu	They had

Be in passé composé – être

Conjugation	Usual translation
J’ai été	I was
Tu as été	You (1 person informal) were
Il, elle, on a été	He/she/it was
Nous avons été	We were
Vous avez été	You (1 formal or plural) were
Ils, elles ont été	They were

Go in passé composé – aller

Conjugation	Usual translation
Je suis allé(e)	I went
Tu es allé(e)	You went
Il, elle, on est allé(e)(s)	He/she/it went
Nous sommes allé(e)s	We went
Vous êtes allé(e)(s)	You went
Ils, elles sont allé(e)s	They went

Note that passé composé doesn’t usually translate into the past progressive “I was going” but could translate into “I went” or “I have gone” or “I did go”…

To learn the French conjugations of the most common French irregular verbs, I suggest you check out my French verb drills audiobooks.

When to use Passé Composé?

When you are talking about the past in French, or telling a story in the past, you’ll mostly use 2 tenses: the passé composé and l’imparfait.

The passé composé describes an action that ended in the past. It describes what took place at that very moment: a specific event or a succession of specific events, the main storyline.
(Picture a selfie)

This is really a shortcut!
There is much to say on this subject and that’s why I wrote a whole article which explains the use of passé composé vs imparfait. My article includes many practice stories with explanations of why I chose passé composé or imparfait, even videos!

Agreements in Passé Composé

Students spend hours upon hours trying to understand the agreements with passé composé.

This is very important if you are passing a French test, since it’s a favorite!

However, if you are learning French to communicate in French, all these agreements are mostly going to be silent! It’s only in writing that it matters.

So, is this really worth your time?

Here is the general rule – but let me warn you, knowing the rule doesn’t mean you can apply it easily!

Passé composé agreement with être

With to be as your auxiliary verb, it’s rather simple. The past participle is going to have the same kind of agreements as regular French adjective.

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	é, i, u Marc est allé Marc est parti Marc est venu	Add a silent s Marc et Anne sont allés Marc et Anne sont partis Marc et Anne sont venus
Féminine	add a silent e ée, ie, ue Anne est allée Anne est partie Anne est venue	add a silent es ées, ies, ues Anne et Julie sont allées Anne et Julie sont parties Anne et Julie sont venues

Actually, many past participles in French are used as adjectives:

Camille et Olivier sont mariés – mariés grammatical speaking is a past participle used as an adjective. But I digress…

Passé composé agreement with avoir

That’s what is really confusing.

If you are a French beginner, just remember that when a French verb is conjugated with avoir / to have in the passé composé, the past participle (the main verb) never agrees with the subject.
Never, ever, ever.

Anne a parlé – never ever ever ée
Ils ont fini – never ever ever is

If you know what a direct object is, then the rule may make sense to you.

Most students don’t remember what a direct object is, and the problem is that French learning method assume they do.

I can’t go deep into explaining what a direct object is here. To truly understand French grammatical concepts such as pronouns, direct objects, adjectives etc, I suggest you check out my intermediate level French audiobook method.

So now here is the passé composé with avoir agreement rule:

With avoir, the past participle (the main verb) will agree in gender and number with the direct object, only if the direct object is placed before the verb.

Il a acheté des fleurs. Il a acheté quoi ? Des fleurs. Des fleurs is the direct object.

Placed after the verb – no agreement Il a acheté des fleurs.

Placed before = agreement Les fleurs qu’il a achetées Agreement with les fleurs (feminine plural)

Object pronoun placed before = agreement (Les fleurs) Il les a achetées Agreement with les (standing for les fleurs = feminine plural)

Acheté, achetés, achetée, achetées are pronounced the same way! So it’s only if you are writing French that you need to worry.

There are some cases when you’ll hear the agreement. La chemise qu’il a mise – iZ La poésie qu’il a apprise – iZ La bêtise qu’il a dite – iT

Yes, it’s true. If you want to speak French perfectly, eventually you’ll need to master these subtleties. But if you ask me, for most people studying French for pleasure, this can wait. There are other priorities.

For example, memorising the verbs which are conjugated with être or avoir in passé composé. This is much more important and worth your time if you are studying French to communicate in French!

How to Choose Between Avoir and Être?

Most verbs in French use “avoir” to form compound tenses such as passé-composé, plus-que-parfait, futur-antérieur etc… But some verbs use “être”“.

In this lesson, I’m going to point out mnemotechnic ways to memorize them, but mostly I am offering you a deeper understanding of the logic behind this grammatical behavior.

Not All Verbs of Movement Use Être In Passé Composé

Many methods will tell you this: verbs that use “être” are verbs of movement.

It’s true, but I don’t think this is very helpful, since many verbs of movements do not use “être”, such as “danser (to dance), sauter (to jump), courir (to run), marcher (to walk) etc…” which use “avoir”.
J’ai dansé, j’ai sauté, j’ai couru, j’ai marché…

French Today follower Ann Pavett shared with me this explanation which I liked:
Verbs of displacement – i.e. Verbs which indicate you have moved from one place to another – use être.

1. Je suis allé au marché (the destination shows the displacement)
2. Il est arrivé hier. (This implies he made it to his destination, even though the destination is not mentioned.)
3. Il est parti. (He has physically left one place and will end up in another)
4. Je suis né/ Il est mort (I came into the world and he left it = displacement)

“Je suis resté” is an irritating exception because we’re not going anywhere, in fact the opposite is the case!
But there always has to be an exception to a rule….

Why does a verb like “courir” not belong to this group of verbs?

1. No destination needs to be involved
2. It is concerned with the way you do something, not with where you are going.
   (You can run on the spot, on a treadmill for example. Or: He ran to the shop – he didn’t walk there)

What Matters is What Follows The Verb!

What really helps to understand why the verbs constructed with “être” do so, is to know they are all intransitive verbs in French: in their original meaning they cannot be followed by a direct object.

In French, they are followed by complement of place, time, manner… and this differs usually from English.

For example, in English, you say “he exited the house“.
He exited what? = the house. The house is a direct object.

In French, “il est sorti de la maison”.
Il est sorti DE quoi ? = de la maison. La maison is a complement of place.

Now that you know this, you’ll understand why when you memorize these words, you should memorize the prepositions that come with them as well.

Most of these verbs can be followed by all prepositions of place: à, au, aux, en, sur, chez, en bas….

Remember that when you use “être”, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject:
Elles sont entrées dans la maison = they came inside the house.

All Reflexive Verbs Use “Etre” in Passé Composé

This is quite important as well. All the verbs used in a reflexive form (the “se” form) use être :

1. J’ai habillé la poupée : I dressed the doll (not reflexive)
2. Je me suis habillée : I got dressed (reflexive)

To understand how to use a verb in the reflexive form, I invite you to read my blog article about French reflexive verbs.

List of French verbs using “être” to form their compound tenses

The following verbs (+ verbs in the reflexive form) use être for their compound tenses: passé-composé, but also plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur etc…

So that you can remember these “être” verbs better, I’ve listed commonly used prepositions after the verbs.

Please understand these are not the only prepositions that can be used, just pointers.

Try to memorize these examples, or make examples that are “closer” to your life, so you can remember them better. Don’t forget your prepositions!

1. Venir de : to come from
   Elle est venue du Japon – she came from Japan
2. Arriver à, en, au… : to arrive
   Ils sont arrivés au restaurant – they arrived to the restaurant
3. Monter sur: to climb up on
   Je suis montée sur le mur – I climbed up on the wall
4. Entrer dans: to enter – watch out since this one doesn’t use a preposition in English
   Il est entré dans la maison – he entered the house
5. Rester dans, à…: to stay in
   Tu es resté dans ta chambre – you stayed in your room
6. Sortir de: to exit –  watch out since this one doesn’t use a preposition in English-
   On est sortis de l’hôtel – we exited the hotel
7. Descendre de: to go down (downstairs) from, to climb down…
   Nous sommes descendus de l’arbre – we climbed down from the tree
8. Tomber de, sur… – to fall from, on…
   Vous êtes tombées de cheval – you fell from your horse
9. Partir à, en… – to leave for…
   Il est parti en France – he left for France
10. Aller à, au, en, chez… – to go to, in…
    Tu es allée à Paris – you went to Paris
11. Passer par – to go through a place
    Nous sommes passés par Paris – we went through Paris
12. Retourner à, au, en, Rentrer chez – to back (again) to / (more on retourner ≠ rentrer)
    Il est retourné à la boulangerie – he went back again to the bakery
13. Naître à, au, en – To be born in
    Je suis née à Paris – I was born in Paris
14. Mourir à, au, en… – To die in
    Elle est morte chez elle – she died in her home

+ all the verbs built on these verbs also use être: rentrer, devenir, revenir, repartir…

How to Memorize which French Verbs Use “Être”?

Être and avoir: the hiker

A way to help memorizing these verbs is to imagine a hiker coming to a mountain with a house on top:

1. Being born in the village (elle est née dans le village)
2. then coming here (elle est venue ici) ,
3. passing pretty flowers (elle est passée à côté de ces jolies fleurs),
4. reaching the bottom of the mountain (elle est arrivée en bas de la montagne),
5. climbing on top of the mountain (elle est montée en haut de la montagne),
6. then going towards the house (elle est allée vers la maison),
7. entering the house (elle est entrée dans la maison),
8. staying in the house a bit (elle est restée un peu dans la maison),
9. then exiting the house (et puis elle est sortie de la maison),
10. going down the mountain (elle est descendue de la montagne),
11. falling (elle est tombée)…
12. but thankfully without dying (mais heureusement, elle n’est pas morte),
13. leaving the mountain (elle est partie de la montagne),
14. returning to her village (elle est rentrée dans son village)…

Let’s illustrate this hiker image with a video.

My daughter Leyla did a short and fun video using the popular video game Minecraft.

DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP

Another way to memorize which verbs take être or avoir is DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP:
Devenir
Revenir
&
Monter
Rester
Sortir

Venir
Aller
Naître
Descendre
Entrer
Rentrer
Tomber
Retourner
Arriver
Mourir
Partir et Passer par

Now, don’t forget that all reflexive verbs also use “être”.
Je me suis lavée – (se laver) I washed myself.

I believe the mnemotechnic methods listed above to be useful for an exam, but not when you speak.

To make the right choice when speaking, you need to develop habits, reflexes, and the best way is to get accustomed to hearing these verb forms used properly: use my French audio books to study “être” and “avoir” verbs in the context of a story, develop an ear for it!

More about être and avoir

Now let’s go a bit deeper into grammar. I like to tell my students that “être” is the verb of the subject, and “avoir” the verb of the direct object. “Être” is “allergic” to direct object: see what happens now…

Many of the verbs above can be used in an “idiomatic” way, with a meaning which is twisted from their original meaning.

To say to take something down, in, out, up… we also use these verbs:

• Descendre la poubelle: to take the garbage downstairs
• Monter la valise: to take the suitcase upstairs
• Sortir les chiens: to take the dogs out
• Rentrer la voiture: to put the car inside the garage

Also

• Passer + time = to spend + time

So now, you are going to have a direct object: la poubelle, la valise… Can you guess which verb you’ll use to make passé composé? “Avoir”, that’s right!

When Être Verbs Use Avoir

• J’ai descendu le sac: I took the bag downstairs
• J’ai monté l’escalier: I went up the stairs
• J’ai sorti la voiture: I took the car outside
• J’ai rentré les jouets: I took the toys inside
• J’ai passé le weekend à Paris: I spent the weekend in Paris

Note: there are many idiomatic meanings of these verbs + direct object:

• Descendre quelqu’un: to diss someone, also to kill someone
• Monter + something: to build something up,
• Recently a popular song said “tomber la chemise” to say to remove one’s shirt…

Reflexive Verbs + Direct Object

Some reflexive verbs can be used by a direct object, in particular part of the body.

In this case, you will still use “être”, but there will be no agreement: not with the subject, not with the direct object…

• Camille s’est lavé les mains – Camille washed her hands.

Note also that we say “she washed (herself) THE hands”, not as in English “she washed HER hands”, we use a definite article, not a possessive adjective.

Passé Composé Story

Here is a short video I made to illustrate Passé Composé using the popular videogame “The Sims 4”.

In this video, we’ll concentrate on what took place in Philippe’s life, the series of actions he did that evening.

And here is the French transcript:

Voici Philippe. Ce soir, Philippe est rentré tôt du travail et il a mangé un burger. Et puis il s’est levé, il s’est mis en maillot de bain, et il est sorti de chez lui.

Il a traversé son jardin, il s’est approché de sa piscine et il a descendu l’échelle pour entrer dans l’eau.

Il a nagé un petit peu sur place, et puis, il a commencé à faire des longueurs.

Philippe s’est approché du bord de la piscine, et puis il est sorti de l’eau.

Il a couru pour rentrer dans la maison

Il a décidé d’aller prendre un bain pour se rincer, et se réchauffer.

Il est entré dans son bain et s’est lavé.

Il est sorti de la baignoire, puis il a voulu jouer de la guitare.

Après un moment, il a posé sa guitare, il a pris son assiette et l’a mise dans le lave-vaisselle ; il a ouvert le frigidaire, pris les ingrédients pour se faire un croque monsieur, et il a commencé à cuisiner.

Il a retourné le croque-monsieur.

Il a sorti son téléphone et a envoyé un texto à son ami Pierre.

Il a salé son croque-monsieur, l’a retourné une fois de plus, et puis il l’a mis sur une assiette, et il est allé s’asseoir pour dîner.

Next, I suggest you read my article about the differences between passé-composé and imparfait, and discover the same video now featuring Philippe’s thoughts, and what was taking place all around him (= imparfait).

You may also be interested in my article about the subjunctive.

The best way to truly understand French grammar is to learn French in context: check out French Today’s downloadable French audiobooks: French Today’s bilingual novels are recorded at different levels of enunciation (enunciated and modern).

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