1. Le passé composé
avec avoir
n i! é!
fi g n
ai ga
J’ i
J ’a

2. What is it?
The passé composé is a past
tense in French. It is a
compound tense, which means it
is made up of two verbs. You
need an auxiliary (helping) verb
in the present tense and the
participe passé (past participle)
of the main verb. For most
verbs, the auxiliary verb is
avoir.

3. REVIEW CONJUGATION of AVOIR
J’ai
Tu as
Il/Elle/on a
Nous avons
Vous avez
Elles/Ils ont

4. To form the
participe passé
Drop the last two letters of
the infinitive and add…
-er >é -ir >i -re >u
parler finir vendre
parlé fini vendu

5. Conjugation of parler in the
passé composé
avoir participe passé
j’ai parlé
tu as parlé
il, elle, on a parlé
nous avons parlé
vous avez parlé
ils, elles ont parlé

6. Translations (3 ways)
J’ai parlé. = I spoke.
I did speak.
I have spoken.
Elle a attendu. = ?

7. Negation
Negative words go around the
auxiliary verb.
Il n’a pas joué.
He didn’t play./He hasn’t
played.
Tu n’as pas fini.
You didn’t finish./You haven’t
finished.

8. Questions
Est-ce que:
Est-ce qu’il a joué?
Did he play?
Quand est-ce que tu as fini?
When did you finish?

9. Inversion: (invert auxiliary verb
and subject, add -)
1. Quand as-tu fini?
When did you finish?
2. A-t-il* joué?
Did he play?
* Add –t- when inverting il/elle/on form of
avoir

10. Remember…
1. The passé composé has TWO
verbs: auxiliary (helping)
verb (avoir) and participe
passé.
2. The participe passé always
comes after the auxiliary
verb.