The past tenseFrench words

*When and how to use PASSÉ COMPOSÉ* Let's dive into the French past tense called *PASSÉ COMPOSÉ*. This tense is used to talk about *something that happened in the past, is now finished*, and, as the name suggests, *the form is a composition of two verbs*. See this example: "Il as trouvé ses lunettes." - He found his glasses. At first, seeing two verbs together can be confusing. But don't worry. *Passé composé* always uses either the verb *ETRE* or *AVOIR*, plus the verb that carries the meaning the speaker wants to convey. In the example above, we see *AS*, ie. *present tense* of the verb *avoir* and *trouvé*, ie. *the past participle of the verb conveying the meaning of finding something*. *The general structure of PASSÉ COMPOSÉ is as follows:* subject + *avoir/être* in present tense + *past participle* *How to create the past participle?* *For verbs ending -ER in their infinitive form, it is very simple:* *Remove the -er at the end and replace it with -é,* just like we saw in the example above, where "trouver" became "trouvé".

*17 verbs to use with ETRE* You may be asking yourself How do I know *whether to use AVOIR or ETRE* with the verb I want to express the meaning of? The answer to this is simple, but not very popular - you have to remember. There is a *list of 17 verbs that are always, always used with the verb ETRE*. Those are generally verbs of movement or lack of movement and also verbs signifying the beginning and end of life. The majority of the verbs which are not part of this list are used with the verb AVOIR. We have already seen some of the *verbs that are only used with ETRE* in the previous sentences. See the complete list below: "ARRIVER" ie. *to arrive* "PARTIR" ie. *to leave* "SORTIR" ie. *to go out/exit* "ALLER" ie. *to go* "MONTER" ie. *to go up* "PASSER PAR" ie. *to go through/by* "ENTRER" ie. *to enter* "RENTRER" ie. *to return* "TOMBER" ie. *to fall* "NAÎTRE" ie. *to born* "VENIR" ie. *to come* "DEVENIR" ie. *to become* "REVENIR" ie. *to come back* "RETOURNER" ie. *to return* "DESCENDRE" ie. *to come down* "RESTER" ie. *to stay* "MOURIR" ie. *to die*

*Past participle of verbs ending -ir* As you probably noticed in the previous section, the endings of past participles do not always look the same. The form always depends on which group the individual verb belongs to. For more details about verb groups, go to the course on present tense, where you will find detailed information about them. Here is a short reminder: *1st group: verbs ending in -er (with some exceptions) 2nd group: verbs ending in -ir 3rd group: verbs ending in -re* As we already covered the verbs of the 1st group in the first theoretical section of this course, let's explore the *endings of the 2nd verb group* now. *For some (not all!) verbs ending with -IR, we remove the -r at the end:* *finir* (to finish) becomes *fini* *dormir* (to sleep) becomes *dormi* *partir* (to leave) becomes *parti* *choisir* (to choose) becomes *choisi* *sortir* (to go out) becomes *sorti*

*Past participle of verbs ending -re* The endings of the 3rd verb group also follow a specific pattern. The ending for these is as follows: *For some (not all!) verbs ending with -RE, we replace the -re with -u:* *descendre* (to go down) becomes *descendu* *attendre* (to wait) becomes *attendu* *entendre* (to hear) becomes *entendu* *perdre* (to lose) becomes *perdu* *vendre* (to sell) becomes *vendu*

*Past participles of verbs with no category* *There are also other verbs, which do not fall into any category,* and, unfortunately, you will have to simply (well, yeah...) remember the form of their *past participles*. Some of verbs that do not belong to any category are the following: "être" (to be) – "été" "avoir" (to have) – "eu" "faire" (to do) – "fait" "prendre" (to take) – "pris" "voir" (to see) – "vu" "vouloir" (to want) – "voulu" "pouvoir" (can) – "pu" "devoir" (have to) – "dû" "ouvrir" (to open) – "ouvert" "recevoir" (to receive) – "reçu" "savoir" (to know) – "su" "venir" (to come) – "venu" "naître" (to born) – "né" "mourir" (to die) – "mort" "connaître" (to know) – "connu" "lire" (to read) – "lu"

*Gender and number agreement* *Don't forget to make sure the past participle agrees with the gender. This is especially important for plurals and feminine gender.* So don't get confused to see many Es at the end of French past participles. See the following examples: tomber - "Elle est tombée." (She fell.) partir - "Jeanette est partie." (Jeanette left.) descendre - "Mes enfants sont descendus de l'escalier." (My children went down the stairs.) *But be careful! This subject-verb agreement only applies to verbs connected with ETRE. It means you will not create an agreement of verbs used with AVOIR:* dormir - "Elle a dormi." (She slept.) entendre - "Ils ont entendu une voix." (They heard a voice.)

*Negative form of PASSÉ COMPOSÉ* As if things were not complicated enough, it is important to learn how to form a *negative sentence using PASSÉ COMPOSÉ.* The structure is as follows: *the subject + NE + AVOIR/ETRE + PAS + verb conveying the meaning* *Simply for the verb AVOIR:* Je n'ai pas + past participle Tu n'as pas + past participle Elle/Il/On n'a pas + past participle Nous avons pas + past participle Vous avez pas + past participle Ils/Elles ont pas + past participle *Simply for the verb ETRE:* Je ne suis pas + past participle Tu n'es pas + past participle Il/Elle/On n'est pas + past participle Nous ne somme pas + past participle Vous n'êtes pas + past participle Elles/Ils ne sont pas + past participle

*FULL PAST with reflexive verbs* Another specific group of verbs is always used with the verb to be. These are reflexive verbs, i.e. verbs that are always used with a reflexive pronoun. Make sure that the ending matches the gender and number of the subject.