Passé composé: talk about what you did, with avoir or être

The passé composé is the French past tense you build from two parts: an auxiliary, avoir or être, and the past participle of the verb. This page is the reference for forming it. For the other main past tense, read Imparfait vs passé composé. To see where it sits among all the tenses, read French tenses, explained. To drill the forms, use Passé composé practice.

What is the passé composé in French?

The passé composé is the French past tense formed with the auxiliary avoir or être in the présent de l’indicatif, plus the past participle, according to the OQLF [1]. It shows a finished action whose result still matters now, such as J’ai apporté ton billet pour le spectacle de ce soir. (I brought your ticket for tonight’s show) [1]. It also simply places an event in the past, where it competes with, and often replaces, the passé simple: Julian est allé à l’opéra la semaine dernière. (Julian went to the opera last week) [1].

So the French passé composé needs two decisions: which auxiliary, and which participle.

How do you form the passé composé?

Conjugate the auxiliary in the présent, then add the participle. Here is avoir with the participle of perdre [15]:

The participle of a regular verb comes from the infinitive. The OQLF counts the regular -er verbs as more than 90 % of all verbs, and parler gives parlé [5]. Regular -ir verbs, the ones with -issant in the present participle, follow finir, which gives fini [5].

The OQLF classes the -re verbs as irregular [5]. Perdre still gives perdu [15], but prendre gives pris [13]. For -re verbs, learn each participle.

Does the passé composé take avoir or être?

Most verbs take avoir. The OQLF calls it the most frequent auxiliary in the active voice [2]. It is the auxiliary of avoir and être themselves, of all transitive verbs and of most intransitive verbs [2].

The question “etre passe compose” has two answers. Être is the auxiliary for all pronominal verbs and for certain intransitive verbs of movement or change [2]. The OQLF names these, introducing them with “comme”, so read the list as examples:

The verb list is the OQLF’s [2]. The last column shows our own forms for you to read: the OQLF gives the rule, and its example for arriver is Les invités sont arrivés en fin de soirée. [3]

Pronominal verbs take être too: Je me suis fait mal. (I hurt myself) [2].

Some verbs take either auxiliary. The OQLF names commencer, déménager, monter, passer, rajeunir, stationner and vieillir: avoir stresses the action and être the resulting state [2]. Sortir changes with its meaning: le soleil est finalement sorti ce matin, but J’ai sorti le chien ce matin [2].

How does the past participle agree?

With être, the participle agrees in gender and number with the subject [3]. With avoir, it agrees with the direct object only when that object comes before the verb. With no direct object, or one after the verb, it stays the same [4].

The OQLF negation page gives this sentence: Ta sœur, je ne l’ai pas encore vue. (I haven’t seen your sister yet.) [10]. The l’ stands for the sister and comes before the verb, so vue takes an e [4].

Pronominal verbs take a little more care. A verb that exists only in the pronominal form, such as s’absenter, agrees with the subject: Elle s’est absentée un an. [8] For other pronominal verbs, apply the avoir rule to the pronoun. If se is the direct object, the participle agrees: Marie s’est levée très tôt. [8] If a direct object follows, it does not: Elle s’est lavé les mains. [9]

What are the irregular verbs in the passé composé?

Irregular verbs keep the same two-part structure. Only the participle changes shape, so learn it with the verb. The OQLF notes that irregular verbs include some of the most frequently used French verbs, notably avoir and être, which also serve as auxiliaries [5]. Here are the participles this page can source:

Note that avoir and être both take avoir: j’ai eu, j’ai été [2][6][7]. For their other tenses, see avoir conjugation and être conjugation. For more verbs that break the pattern, see Common irregular verbs.

How do you make the passé composé negative or a question?

In the negative, ne goes before the auxiliary and pas after it [10]. The OQLF’s examples: Hugues n’a pas voulu nous accompagner chez Murielle. and Je ne suis pas parvenu à joindre Alain. [10] The participle comes last, after pas.

For questions, the OQLF lists est-ce que, question words, inversion of subject and verb, and a repeated pronoun as ways to build them [11]. In the passé composé, the inversion affects the auxiliary. The OQLF example is Quel rôle as-tu joué dans cette affaire? [11] Here as-tu is the auxiliary and its subject swapped, and joué follows.

Common mistakes

• Using avoir with aller, arriver, partir or venir. They are on the OQLF’s list of verbs that take être [2].
• Forgetting that être makes the participle agree. Say elles sont arrivées, not elles sont arrivé [3].
• Agreeing the participle with avoir by habit. It agrees only with a direct object placed before the verb [4].
• Putting pas after the participle. Pas goes after the auxiliary: Il n’a pas voulu [10].
• Giving être its own auxiliary. Être takes avoir: j’ai été [2][7].
• Treating every -re verb as -u. Perdre gives perdu but prendre gives pris [13][15].
• Trusting a grammar page, including this one. Compare each source’s date with the date at the top of this page.

Sources