French Notes

Okey dokey – here we are in one big old swoop. All of the passé composé. The passé composé is used to refer to something that happened in the past. It did happen, it happened, or it has happened. Anything else and it’s a different tense.

The passé composé has two parts – an auxiliary verb and the past participle. To make this happen, you need to

1. conjugate the auxiliary verb (avoir or être)

2. plug in the past participle

a. for regular ER verbs – drop the ‘er’, add ‘é’ – parler becomes parlé

b. for regular IR verbs – drop the ‘r’ – finir becomes fini

c. for regular RE verbs – drop the ‘re’, add ‘u’ – vendre becomes vendu

d. irregular verbs – memorize them!!!

passé composé with avoir

ER –

j’ai dansé – I danced, I have danced, I did dance

tu as dansé – you danced, you have danced, you did dance

il a dansé – he danced, he has danced, he did dance

nous avons dansé – we danced, we have danced, we did dance

vous avez dansé – you danced, you have danced, you did dance

ils ont dansé – they danced, they have danced, they did dance

IR –

j’ai fini – I have finished, I did finish, I finished

tu as fini – you have finished, you did finish, you finished

il a fini – he has finished, he did finish, he finished

nous avons fini – we have finished, we did finish, we finished

vous avez fini – you have finished, you did finish, you finished

ils ont fini – they have finished, they did finish, they finished

RE –

j’ai vendu – I sold, I did sell, I have sold

tu as vendu – you sold, you did sell, you have sold

il a vendu – he sold, he did sell, he has sold

nous avons vendu – we sold, we did sell, we have sold

vous avez vendu – you sold, you did sell, you have sold

ils ont vendu – they sold, they did sell, they have sold

IRREG – (just an example, I’ll give you the list of irregular past participles separately)

example for mettre – past participle is ‘mis’

j’ai mis – I put, I did put, I have put

tu as mis – you put, you did put, you have put

il a mis – he put, he did put, he has put

nous avons mis – we put, we did put, we have put

vous avez mis – you put, you did put, you have put

ils ont mis – they put, they did put, they have put

*the passé composé with être will be in next posting*