The passé composé is used to describe an action completed in the past. It is called composé ("compound") because it has two parts: a) an auxiliary (usually a form of avoir) and b) a past participle (e.g.: parlé). Unlike the imperfect, which is used to describe situations in the past, the passé composé is used to describe relatively succinct events that have taken place, e.g.: J'ai acheté un ordinateur hier soir.
The passé composé is formed by using the present tense of avoir, followed by the past participle. This is illustrated in the following table:
Most past participles are formed by dropping the infinitive's ending and adding -é, for -er verbs (e.g.: parlé), -u for -re verbs (e.g.: rendu) and -i for -ir verbs (e.g.: fini). That said, a number of common verbs do have irregular past participles. Some of the most common are:
avoir: j'ai eu
être: j'ai été
voir: j'ai vu
faire: j'ai fait
dire: j'ai dit
savoir: j'ai su
prendre: j'ai pris
While the vast majority of verbs form their passé composé with avoir, a number of verbs (most of which describe actions of "coming" and "going") form their passé composé with être, e.g.: je suis allé ("I went"), elle est venue, nous sommes arrivés.
We provide an overview of the choice between avoir and être here.
In many contexts, the past participle must agree with a preceding noun or pronoun. The two main scenarios where this happens are:
a) when a direct object precedes the verb, e.g.: La pomme que j'ai mangée; des filles que j'ai vues
b) when a feminine or plural subject is used with an "être" verb, e.g: elle est allée; ils sont partis
In addition to these two main contexts, there are some details we discuss in the section on past participles.
Q: Why is it j'ai aimé and NOT j'ai aimer?
The passé composé is formed with the present of avoir, followed by a past participle (not the infinitive).
Q: Why is it il a su and NOT il a savé?
The verb savoir has an irregular past participle (su).
Q: Why is it Elle a vu and NOT Elle a vue?
One does not make agreement with a subject when the auxiliary verb is avoir.
Q: Why is it Les livres que j'ai lus and NOT Les livres que j'ai lu?
Since livres is a plural direct object (it answers the question "what?") that precedes the verb, the past participle must show plural agreement.
Provide the passé composé of the following verbs:
Choose between the past participle and the infinitive:
-Note that the past participle comes after the auxiliary avoir, while the infinitive follows other verbs.
Fill in the blank with "e" or "es" if needed (do not put anything if there is no agreement):
Choose the correct form (past participle agreement):
Choose between the passé composé or the imperfect:
Show Answers
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