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Passé composé

Common past tense in French

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In British teaching of French, the passé composé is usually known as the perfect tense.

Conjugation

The passé composé is formed by the auxiliary verb, usually the avoir auxiliary, followed by the past participle. The construction is parallel to that of the present perfect (there is no difference in French between perfect and non-perfect forms - although there is an important difference in usage between the perfect tense and the imperfect tense).

The passé composé is usually translated into English as a simple past tense, "I saw", or as a present perfect would be, "I have seen". It could also be translated as emphatic past tense, "I did see".

  • J'ai vu quelque chose (I saw something / I have seen something)
  • Tu as parlé de quelque chose (You spoke of something / you have spoken of something)
  • Le garçon est sorti (The boy has gone out / the boy went out / the boy is out)

The auxiliary may actually be used similarly in any tense, leading to the French compound tenses.

Auxiliary avoir

The auxiliary verb is typically avoir 'to have', but is sometimes être 'to be' (see below).

This is the conjugation of avoir, with a past participle:

  • j’ai vu (I saw)
  • nous avons vu (we saw)
  • tu as vu (you saw)
  • vous avez vu (you saw)
  • il/elle/on a vu (he/one/it saw)
  • ils/elles ont vu (they (m)/they (f) saw)

Auxiliary être

The verbs that use être as an auxiliary verb are intransitive verbs that usually indicate motion or change of state.

Since some of these verbs can be used as a transitive verb as well, they will instead take avoir as an auxiliary in those instances. For example:

  • Il est sorti (he went out / he has gone out / he is out)
  • Il a sorti un outil pour le réparer (he took out a tool to repair it [something else])

Sortir, monter, descendre, entrer, retourner, and passer all have transitive and intransitive uses.

This is the conjugation of être, with a past participle:

  • je suis mort(e) (I died, I am dead)
  • nous sommes mort(e)s (we died, we are dead)
  • tu es mort(e) (you died, you are dead)
  • vous êtes mort(e)s (you died, you are dead)
  • il/elle/on est mort(e) (he/she/one/it died, he/she/it is dead)
  • ils/elles sont mort(e)s (they died, they are dead)

The following is a list of verbs that use être (for intransitive usage) as their auxiliary verbs in passé composé:

  • Devenir – to become – (être) devenu(e)(s)
  • Revenir – to come back – (être) revenu(e)(s)
  • Monter – to go up – (être) monté(e)(s)
  • Rester – to stay – (être) resté(e)(s)
  • Sortir – to exit – (être) sorti(e)(s)
  • Venir – to come – (être) venu(e)(s)
  • Aller – to go – (être) allé(e)(s)
  • Naître – to be born – (être) né(e)(s)
  • Descendre – to descend – (être) descendu(e)(s)
  • Entrer – to enter – (être) entré(e)(s)
  • Retourner – to return – (être) retourné(e)(s)
  • Tomber – to fall – (être) tombé(e)(s)
  • Rentrer – to re-enter – (être) rentré(e)(s)
  • Arriver – to arrive – (être) arrivé(e)(s)
  • Mourir – to die – (être) mort(e)(s)
  • Partir – to leave – (être) parti(e)(s)

The above have been remembered using the mnemonic acronym DR and MRS VANDERTRAMP. (Other teaching methods have been used. An alternative version of the mnemonic acronym adds a final "P" (as ...TRAMPP), to account for "passer" in the following section of "additional" être-conjugated verbs. Language evolution with time poses a challenge for this approach.)

In addition to these, at least two other verbs are conjugated with être:

  • Décéder – to die – (être) décédé(e)(s)
  • Passer – to spend/pass– (être) passé(e)(s) (although it is only conjugated with être when describing movement)

Reflexive forms

In addition to the above verbs, all reflexive/pronominal verbs use être as their auxiliary verb. A reflexive/pronominal verb is one that relates back to the speaker, either as an object e.g. Je me suis trompé 'I'm mistaken, I made a mistake' (= *j'ai trompé moi-même, literally 'I fooled myself'), or as a dative form e.g. Je me suis donné du temps (= *j'ai donné du temps à moi-même, 'I gave myself some time').

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