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Nora Lemtouni

 

 

Passé Composé

 

 

• The passé composé is a tense used to tell what happened in the past. It is often referred to as the tense for narration of past time.

 

• Made up of 2 parts: the present indicative form of the auxiliary verb + the past participle of the main verb.

 

     Ex. J’ai commencé à marcher dans la ville.

 

  

      The Auxiliary:

 

• There are 17 verbs that use the auxiliary verb être in their passé composé: MR AND MRS VANDERTRAP

 

    Verbs: aller, arriver, entrer, descendre*, devenir, monter*, mourir, naître, partir, passer*, rentrer*, rester, retourner*, revenir, sortir*, tomber, venir.

 

• The verbs with a star can also be conjugated with avoir. This enables them to take a direct object.

 

• Reflexive verbs also use the auxiliary verb être in the passé composé.

 

   Ex. Ma mere a dit oui, et une nuit, elle s’est échappée et elle s’est cachée.

 

  

     The past participle:

 

• Regular verbs follow this pattern in the formation of their past participle.

  

     Ex. parler/parlé, finir/fini, vendre/vendu

 

• The past participle of a verb conjugated with avoir agrees with the preceding direct object.

  

     Ex. Mon pere a quitté ma mere.

         Mon pere l’a quittée. (la= direct object)

 

     

    Negation:

 

• When using it in the negative, the auxiliary verb (être or avoir) is negated, not the past participle.

 

     Ex. Il n’est jamais revenu.