Unlocking the Past: The Passé Composé in French

Imagine you want to tell a French friend what you did last weekend — you went to the park, you ate pizza, you watched a film. In English, you simply add '-ed' to most verbs. French has its own elegant system for this. Here is a clue: the French past tense is actually built from TWO words, not one. Can you guess what those two parts might be? Before we dive in, quickly recall: what are the French pronouns? Run through them in your head — je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles. You will need all of them today.

The passé composé is the most common past tense in spoken and written French. It describes actions that are completed — things that happened and are finished. It has exactly two parts: 1. An auxiliary verb (avoir or être, conjugated in the present tense) 2. A past participle (the 'done' form of the main verb) **Step 1 — Choose your auxiliary verb** Most verbs use avoir (to have). A smaller but important group uses être (to be). A helpful way to remember the être verbs is the 'house of être': verbs of movement and change of state — aller (to go), venir (to come), partir (to leave), arriver (to arrive), naître (to be born), mourir (to die), and others. All reflexive verbs also take être. Conjugation of avoir in the present: je → j'ai | tu → tu as | il/elle → il/elle a | nous → avons | vous → avez | ils/elles → ont Conjugation of être in the present: je → je suis | tu → tu es | il/elle → il/elle est | nous → sommes | vous → êtes | ils/elles → sont **Step 2 — Form the past participle** The rule depends on the verb's infinitive ending: • -er verbs → remove -er, add -é (parler → parlé) • -ir verbs → remove -ir, add -i (finir → fini) • -re verbs → remove -re, add -u (vendre → vendu) Some common verbs have irregular past participles you must memorise: faire → fait, avoir → eu, être → été, voir → vu, prendre → pris. **Step 3 — Agreement with être** When être is the auxiliary, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number — just like an adjective: • Masculine singular: no change (il est allé) • Feminine singular: add -e (elle est allée) • Masculine plural: add -s (ils sont allés) • Feminine plural: add -es (elles sont allées) With avoir, the past participle does NOT change to match the subject.