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Le Passé Composé: The Past Tense in French
Le Passé Composé: The Past Tense in French
The passé composé is the most important past tense in French. It corresponds to the English
simple past or sometimes the present perfect. The passé composé talks about actions that
were completed in the past and emphasises their results or consequences in the present. We
form the passé composé using the auxiliary verbs avoir or être followed by the past
participle (le participe passé) of the verb.
Auxiliary verbs are most commonly used when forming the perfect in French and they
come from avoir and être. They are called auxiliaries because they support the main verb you
want to write in a past tense. You will use them in their present form, and add on a past
participle.
We use the passé composé to talk about one-time, completed actions that took place in the
past. This tense places the emphasis on the result or consequences of the action.
Example:
one-time past action with a connection to the present: He doesn’t want to be so untidy
anymore.
nous somme
1st person plural (we) nous avons
s
ils/elles on parties
3rd person plural (they) ils/elles sont
t
In negative sentences, the past participle comes after the second part of the negation (pas).
Example:
For reflexive verbs, the reflexive pronoun comes after the first part of the negation (ne) and
before the auxiliary verb (avoir/être).
Example:
Avoir or être?
: naître/mourir, aller/venir, monter/descendre, arriver/partir, entrer/sortir, apparaître, rester,
retourner, tomber ,revenir, rentrer, remonter, .
Example:
Example:
Regular French verbs, stem-changing verbs, and a few irregular verbs conjugate
the past participle by dropping the infinitive ending to find the stem, then adding the
past participle ending for that type of verb:
Par exemple…
Ending -é -é -i -u