The passé composé is the main past tense for completed actions in French. It's a compound tense formed with an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) plus a past participle. Unlike the imparfait, it describes specific, completed actions with clear beginnings and endings. It is used for:
- Completed actions in the past ("I spoke to him")
- Sequential actions ("I arrived, ate dinner, and left")
- Actions with specific time references ("Yesterday I went...")
- Actions that interrupted another action
- Life-changing events ("She was born in Paris")
Regular Past Participles
| Verb Type | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -er verbs | -é | parler → parlé |
| -ir verbs | -i | finir → fini |
| -re verbs | -u | vendre → vendu |
Most verbs take avoir, and the participle then stays as it is.
Takes avoir: parler in Passé Composé
Other intransitive movement verbs take être and their participle agrees with the subject.
Takes être: aller in Passé Composé
Common Irregular Past Participles
A few participles follow none of the three endings above.
| Infinitive | Participle |
|---|---|
| être | été |
| avoir | eu |
| faire | fait |
| dire | dit |
| prendre | pris |
| voir | vu |
| venir | venu |
| aller | allé |
Être Verbs (You can remember these by Dr & Mrs Vandertramp)
The following verbs use être as the auxiliary when they are intransitive:
- Devenir
- Revenir
- Monter
- Rester
- Sortir
- Venir
- Aller
- Naître
- Descendre
- Entrer
- Retourner
- Tomber
- Rentrer
- Arriver
- Mourir
- Partir
Some of these verbs take avoir when they have a direct object: elle est sortie / elle a sorti le livre. Reflexive verbs also take être, but agreement depends on the direct object: elles se sont lavées; elles se sont lavé les mains.
For the non-reflexive verbs above, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject:
- il est allé (m.sing)
- elle est allée (f.sing)
- ils sont allés (m.pl)
- elles sont allées (f.pl)