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French · Grammar · A2

The passé composé: how French talks about what happened

The passé composé (pah-SAY koh(n)-poh-ZAY), “compound past”, is the past tense of everyday French. It is called compound because it is built from two words: a helper verb, avoir or être, and a past participle, the form that ends in -ed in English. J’ai mangé means both “I ate” and “I have eaten”.

subjectj’ avoir or être, presentai past participlemangé meaningI ate / I have eaten
FINISHED EVENTS, ONE AFTER ANOTHER pastnow j’ai pris le trainI took the train je suis arrivéeI arrived j’ai dînéI had dinner Each dot is a completed action. That is the passé composé’s job.
For background and habits in the past (“it was raining”, “I used to”), French uses a different tense, the imperfect.

Short answer: present of avoir + past participle for most verbs: j’ai parlé. About seventeen verbs of movement or change of state, plus all reflexive verbs, use être instead, and then the participle agrees like an adjective: elle est partie.

With avoir: the pattern for most verbs

Conjugate avoir in the present (see the table here) and add the participle, which never changes with avoir. Regular participles come straight from the infinitive.

Regular participles
-er → é parler → parlé (spoken)
-ir → i finir → fini (finished)
-re → u vendre → vendu (sold)

Irregular participles worth learning first

The most common verbs have participles you must learn individually. Many end in -u, -is or -it. These twelve cover most of what you will say.

The verbs that take être

A small group of verbs uses être as the helper. Nearly all describe moving from one place to another, or a change of state such as being born or dying. Picture a house: you are born into it, go in, go up the stairs, come down, go out and leave. Each movement is an être verb.

THE HOUSE OF ÊTRE arriver · to arrivevenir, revenir · to come, come back partir · to leavealler, retourner · to go, go back entrer · sortir monter ↑descendre ↓ tomber · to fall rester · to stay naître · to be bornné, née mourir · to diemort, morte
Verbs built on these take être too: devenir (to become), rentrer (to go home), remonter (to go back up). Also every reflexive verb, one with se in front meaning “oneself”: je me suis levé, I got up.
Agreement with être With être, the participle behaves like an adjective: it adds -e for a feminine subject and -s for a plural one. In most verbs the extra letters are silent, so the change is only visible in writing.
She left.
They arrived.
They ate.
The letter? I wrote it.

Saying “didn’t”: where ne … pas goes

French makes a verb negative with two words, ne before and pas after. In the passé composé they wrap around the helper verb only; the participle stays outside. Before a vowel, ne becomes n’.

JeIn’notaihavepasnotcompris.understood
zhuh nay pah koh(n)-PREE “I didn’t understand.” Why: Ne … pas surround ai, the helper. Compris (from comprendre) stays outside. Ne shortens to n’ before the vowel of ai.
Elleshen’notestispasnotvenue.come
el neh pah vuh-NÜ “She didn’t come.” Why: Venir takes être, so the participle venue adds -e for elle. In speech, ne is often dropped: elle est pas venue.

A Saturday in Lyon, told in the passé composé

Each line adds one finished event. Notice which helper each verb takes. Every word has its English meaning underneath.

  1. 1
    Samedi,SaturdayjeImemyselfsuisamlevéegot-uptard.late
    sahm-DEE, zhuh muh swee luh-VAY TAR “On Saturday I got up late.”
    êtreReflexive verb (se lever), so être. The speaker is a woman: levée.
  2. 2
    J’aiI-havepristakenunacafécoffeeauat-themarché.market
    zhay pree uh(n) kah-FAY oh mar-SHAY “I had a coffee at the market.”
    avoirFrench “takes” a coffee. Pris is the irregular participle of prendre.
  3. 3
    PuisthenjeIsuisamalléegoneauto-themusée.museum
    pwee zhuh swee-zah-LAY oh mü-ZAY “Then I went to the museum.”
    êtreAller is a house-of-être verb. Liaison links suis and allée.
  4. 4
    J’aiI-havevuseenuneanexpositionexhibitionmagnifique.magnificent
    zhay vü ü-nek-spoh-zee-SYOH(N) mah-nyee-FEEK “I saw a magnificent exhibition.”
    avoirVu, from voir. With avoir the participle never agrees with the subject.
  5. 5
    Lethesoir,eveningnousweavonshavedînédinedensemble.together
    luh SWAHR, noo-zah-voh(n) dee-NAY ah(n)-SAH(N)-bluh “In the evening we had dinner together.”
    avoirDîner is a regular -er verb: dîné.
  6. 6
    JeIsuisamrentréecome-homeàatminuit.midnight
    zhuh swee rah(n)-TRAY ah mee-NWEE “I got home at midnight.”
    êtreRentrer, “to go home”, is built on entrer and takes être.

Elle est partie, ils sont arrivés: agreement

With être, the past participle agrees with the subject like an adjective: add -e for a woman, -s for several people. With avoir it normally stays the same. In speech most of these endings are silent, so agreement is mainly a writing skill.

être · feminine
Ellesheestispartie.left
el ay par-TEE · “She left.”Why: parti + e. Sounds the same as parti.
être · plural
Ilstheysontarearrivés.arrived
eel son ta-ree-VAY · “They arrived.”Why: arrivé + s. Note the liaison: sont‿arrivés.
avoir · no agreement
Ellestheyonthavemangé.eaten
el zon man-ZHAY · “They ate.”Why: With avoir the participle does not agree with the subject.
avoir · object before
La lettre ?the letterJeIl’aiit-haveécrite.written
la LETR? zhuh lay ay-KREET · “The letter? I wrote it.”Why: A direct object before avoir makes the participle agree: écrite. Here you hear it, because of the t.

Hier, déjà, pendant: time words

These words often come with the passé composé. Short adverbs like déjà and jamais go between the auxiliary and the participle.

Related guides

Next guideThe imperfectThe other past tense: background, description, habits. Next guideThe present tenseAvoir and être in full, plus regular verbs. Next guideSilent letters and liaisonWhy parlé, parlée and parlés all sound alike. Course mapFrench hubThe full course map from A1 to C2.