To form the past participle of regular French –IR verbs, we have to drop the infinitive –IR ending and replace it with –I : To form the past participle of regular French –ER verbs, we have to drop the infinitive –ER ending and replace it with –É : (For example: play ed, finish ed, wait ed) The past participle is the form of the verb that is equivalent to -ed in English. See the lessons on Passé Composé with ÊTRE to learn more about non-reflexive French verbs that form the Passé Composé with the auxiliary (“helper”) verb être. See the lessons on Passé Composé with AVOIR to learn more about French verbs that form the Passé Composé with avoir.Īll reflexive verbs and a handful of commonly used verbs form the Passé Composé with the auxiliary (“helper”) verb ÊTRE. The literal translation of “ Passé Composé” is “compound past”, and it is called this because the verb form is composed of two parts: (1) the present tense of the auxiliary (or “helper”) verb, and (2) the past participle of the main verb (i.e., the verb that conveys the true meaning).įor the majority of French verbs, the Passé Composé is formed with the auxiliary (“helper”) verb AVOIR. With key words associated with past time ( hier, avant-hier, hier soir, une fois, tout à coup…) Last week I went to Florida, I swam in the ocean, and I slept a lot.ģ. La semaine passée, je suis allé en Floride, j’ai nagé dans l’océan et j’ai beaucoup dormi. With a series of events or actions completed in the past: The Passé Composé (Past Tense) is used in the following instances:Ģ. It is used to express an action or event (or a series of actions or events) completed in the past.

The Passé Composé (Past Tense) is the most common past tense in French. In French sentences, you choose which past tense you use depending only on the meaning you wish to convey. When speaking about the past in English, you choose which past tense to use depending on the context and the meaning you wish to convey. La grammaire française: le passé compose avec les phrases négatives et interrogatives Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Projectįrench Grammar: Passé Composé with Negative and Interrogative Phrases

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