The document discusses the French passé composé (perfect tense). It is used to talk about actions completed in the past. It is formed using the present tense of either avoir or être as an auxiliary verb along with the past participle of the main verb. Regular patterns are provided for forming past participles of verbs from their infinitive forms. Some common irregular past participles are also listed. Exceptions where être is used instead of avoir are explained along with rules for subject-verb agreement.

1. Le passé composé
(the perfect tense)

2. The perfect tense – Le passé
composé
• In French you use the perfect tense (le
passé composé) to say what you have
done in the past.
• The passé composé is usually formed by
using the present tense of
• avoir and the
• past participle of the verb, just as in
English

3. Par exemple:
• J’ai joué =
• I have played
• Nous avons gagné =
• We have won
• Elle a dormi =
• She has slept
• Tu as répondu =
• You have replied

4. Auxiliary verb
• J’ ai
• Tu as
• Il a
• Elle a
• Nous avons
• Vous avez
• Ils ont
• Elles ont

5. Past participles
• To form the past participle of –er verbs, take the
-er off the infinitive and replace it with
• -é
• Regular –ir verbs form the past participles by
taking off the
• final –r
• Regular
• -re verbs take off the final –re and replace it with
• u

6. Irregular past participles
• Avoir =
• Eu
• Boire =
• Bu
• Lire =
• Lu
• Voir =
• vu

7. • Venir =
• Venu
• Dire =
• Dit
• Écrire =
• Écrit
• Faire =
• fait

8. • Prendre =
• Pris
• Apprendre =
• Appris
• Comprendre =
• Compris
• Mettre =
• mis

9. Part 2 Next

10. • In the perfect tense most verbs take the
auxiliary verb
• Avoir
• But some take
• Être
• To help you learn which verbs take être
you can memorise the mnemonic
• MR DAMP’S TAVERN

11. MR DAMPS TAVERN
• Mourir
• Retourner
• Descendre
• Aller
• Monter
• Partir
• Sortir

12. • Tomber
• Arriver
• Venir
• Entrer
• Rester
• Naitre

13. Agreement
• Notice that with verbs that take être as the
auxiliary verb, the past
• participle agrees with the subject (the
person or thing doing the action). If the
subject is feminine you must add an extra
• -e and if the subject is plural you must add
an extra
• -s. If it is plural and feminine you must add
• -es!