French

• Passé composé

  The equivalent of the simple past (j'ai fait, I did) and the present perfect (j'ai fait, I have done)
• Forming the passé composé

  Verb in the present tense of 'avoir' or 'être' (auxiliary verb/helping verb) + past participle
• Passé composé


  • Refers to actions that have been completed in the past
  • A compound tense, meaning you need two components to conjugate a verb

  
• Past participle endings of regular verbs

  • -é for 'er' verbs
  • -i for 'ir' verbs
  • -u for 're' verbs
• Some verbs have an irregular past participle in French

  
• Helping verb


  Être or avoir, conjugated in the present tense

  
• The majority of French verbs are regular and forming their past participle is easy

  
• Regular verb conjugations in the passé composé

  • Manger => J'ai mangé
  • Finir => J'ai fini
  • Vendre => J'ai vendu

  
• Irregular verb past participle patterns

  • Faire, dire and other verbs in ire => it
  • Connaître and other verbs in aitre => u
  • Venir and other verbs in enir => enu
  • Prendre and other verbs in -endre => pris

  
• How to conjugate verbs in the passé composé tense

  1. Choose your helping verb (être or avoir)

  2. Add the past participle
• Avoir as a helping verb


  • The most common helping verb
  • The past participle does not change unless there is a preceding direct object

  
• Verbs that use être as the helping verb in the passé composé

  • Devenir
  • Revenir
  • Mourir
  • Retourner
  • Sortir
  • Venir
  • Arriver
  • Naître
  • Descendre
  • Entrer
  • Rentrer
  • Tomber
  • Rester
  • Aller
  • Monter
  • Partir

  
• Passé composé agreement of verbs using être as a helping verb


  1. Add 'e' if the subject is female

  2. Add 's' if the subject is plural

  3. Add 'e' and 's' if the subject is plural and female

  
• Whenever "passer" means "aller", [to come by, to visit, to stop by] use "être", otherwise, use 'avoir'
• Forming the negative in the passé composé


  Put 'ne' before the conjugated form of avoir or être and the negative word after it

  
• Passé composé agreement of verbs using avoir as a helping verb

  1. Only need to agree with preceding direct objects

  2. Ask 'what' or 'whom' after the verb to know if there is a preceding direct object

  
• All object pronouns are placed before the verb in a French sentence, even in the passé composé

  
• Passé composé agreement with avoir

  • Elle l'a mangé (feminine direct object)
  • Elle l'a mangée (feminine direct object)
  • Elle les a mangées (plural feminine direct object)
• The past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject when using être as the helping verb in the passé composé

  
• Verbs conjugated with 'avoir' and 'être' in the passé composé


  • Nous avons descendu nos valises
  • Qui a rentré les livres?
  • Elle a sorti son mouchoir
  • Tu as entré l'information?
  • L'homme a monté nos bagages
• Reflexive verbs in the passé composé


  1. Use être as the helping verb

  2. Past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject

  
• Reflexive verb conjugation in the passé composé

  • Je me suis lavé(e)
  • Tu t'es lavé(e)
  • Il s'est lavé
  • Elle s'est lavée
  • Nous nous sommes lavé(e)s
  • Vous vous êtes lavé(e)(s)
  • Ils se sont lavés
  • Elles se sont lavées
• une pâtisserie - bakery
• le boulanger - the baker
• je vais = i am going to
• un café - coffee shop
• un restaurant - restaurant
• j'ai vu = I have seen
• un chocolatier - chocolate maker
• la confiserie - sweet shop
• il y avait = there was/there were
• la crème glacée - ice cream
• nous allons = we are going to
• des éclairs - eclairs
• les fruits frais - fresh fruit
• les croissants - croissants
• l'eau de mer - sea water
• l’eau minérale - mineral water
• les montagnes - mountains
• une patisserie - bakery