The passé composé
The short answer
The passé composé is the everyday past tense of spoken French. It is built from an auxiliary: avoir for most verbs, être for a short list and all reflexives, plus a past participle. It reports finished events, and it is the tense you need to say what you did yesterday.
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The rule
The passé composé is the tense French uses to report a finished event. It is a compound tense: an auxiliary in the present, then the past participle of the main verb. Almost every verb takes avoir as its auxiliary, while a closed list of movement and change-of-state verbs takes être, as does every reflexive verb. After être the participle agrees with the subject. The passé composé covers both the English simple past and the present perfect, so one French tense answers two English ones.
| Form | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Affirmative | subjectavoir/êtreparticiple | J’ai fini le rapport. |
| Negative | subjectneauxiliarypasparticiple | Je n’ai pas fini le rapport. |
| Question | auxiliarysubjectparticiple | As-tu fini le rapport ? |
| With être | subjectêtreparticiple agreeing with subject | Elle est partie à midi. |
| Reflexive | subjectpronounêtreparticiple | Nous nous sommes levés tôt. |
Part 1 of 3
Building the participle
Regular verbs are predictable: -er verbs give -é (parlé), -ir verbs give -i (fini), and -re verbs give -u (vendu). That covers the overwhelming majority of French verbs, and it is worth over-learning before touching the irregulars.
The irregulars are a fixed list, and about twenty of them account for nearly everything you will hear: eu, été, fait, dit, pris, mis, vu, su, pu, voulu, venu, tenu, écrit, ouvert, offert, mort, né, lu, bu, cru.
J’ai parlé au responsable ce matin.
I spoke to the manager this morning.
Nous avons attendu vingt minutes.
We waited twenty minutes.
Elle a ouvert la fenêtre.
She opened the window.
NBOuvert, not ouvri, the -ir group has several irregular participles.
Part 2 of 3
Choosing avoir or être
Avoir is the default and is right for the great majority of verbs. Être is used by around sixteen verbs of movement and change of state: aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber, retourner, passer, revenir, devenir, and by every reflexive verb without exception.
Six of the être verbs switch to avoir when a direct object appears, and the meaning shifts with them: je suis sorti is “I went out”, j’ai sorti le chien is “I took the dog out”.
Ils sont arrivés avec deux heures de retard.
They arrived two hours late.
Je me suis trompé de train.
I got on the wrong train.
NBReflexive, so être, se tromper has nothing to do with movement.
Nous avons descendu les valises.
We took the suitcases down.
NBDescendre with an object, so avoir.
Part 3 of 3
Agreement of the participle
After être the participle agrees with the subject: -e for feminine, -s for plural, -es for both. After avoir it normally does not agree at all, but it does when a direct object comes before the verb, which happens with object pronouns and in relative clauses.
Most of this is silent. Parti and partie sound identical, so agreement matters in writing and in exams rather than in speech. The exceptions are participles ending in a consonant, where the feminine is audible: pris and prise, écrit and écrite, mort and morte.
Mes sœurs sont rentrées hier soir.
My sisters got back last night.
La lettre que j’ai écrite est sur le bureau.
The letter I wrote is on the desk.
NBÉcrite agrees because la lettre comes before the verb, and here you can hear it.
Ces photos, je les ai prises en Corse.
These photos, I took them in Corsica.
NBLes is a direct object placed before the verb, so prises agrees with it.
Mistakes to avoid
What learners actually get wrong
J’ai allé au cinéma.
Je suis allé au cinéma.
Aller takes être. English “I have gone” pushes learners towards avoir, and the choice of auxiliary in French has nothing to do with the English one.
Elle a partie tôt.
Elle est partie tôt.
Partir is on the être list. Note that the agreement was written correctly here, learners often get the participle right and the auxiliary wrong, which suggests the two rules are being learned separately when they should be learned together.
J’ai vu elle hier.
Je l’ai vue hier.
Object pronouns go before the auxiliary, not after the participle. And because the object now precedes the verb, the participle agrees: vue.
Je n’ai fini pas.
Je n’ai pas fini.
In a compound tense, ne and pas wrap the auxiliary, not the whole verb. The participle sits outside the negation entirely.
Now use it
Passé composé
Auxiliary, past participle and agreement: practice with full verb conjugation. Reading a rule and being able to apply it are different skills, and only one of them shows up when you speak.
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Questions
Asked and answered
- Is the passé composé the same as the English present perfect?
- It overlaps with it but is wider. J’ai mangé can be “I ate” or “I have eaten” depending on context, so one French tense covers two English ones. The consequence is that you cannot decide between passé composé and imparfait by translating, the English form gives you no signal.
- When would I use the passé simple instead?
- Only in writing, and only formal writing: novels, history, journalism at its most literary. It carries exactly the same meaning as the passé composé. You will need to recognise il fut and elle prit when reading, but you are never obliged to produce them.
- Do I have to learn the agreement rules to speak?
- Not urgently. Most participle agreement is inaudible, so it will not affect whether you are understood. It does affect anything you write, including exams, so it is worth learning properly once your speaking is comfortable rather than as a beginner.