French Notes

Composed Tenses

The passé composé, plus que parfait, the conditional past, and the futur anterieur are all composed tenses. This means that they all have an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) plus a past participle. The only thing that changes between the tenses is the tense of the auxiliary verb. Other than the tense of the auxilary verb, ALL the composed tenses are done just like passé composé.

Passé Composé = verbed, did verb, or has / have verbed

To form the passé composé,

1. conjugate auxiliary verb (avoir or être) in present tense

2. plug in past participle

3. for verbs with être in passé composé, add “e” or “s” to past participle to match the subject in gender and number

Plus Que Parfait = haD verbed

The plus que parfait is the tense that happened before the passé composé.

Ex : We haD already left when they arrived.

had left = plus que parfait

arrived = passé composé

To form the plus que parfait,

1. conjugate the auxiliary verb (être or avoir) in imparfait

2. plug in past participle

3. for verbs that use être as their auxiliary verb, add “e” or “s” to past participle to match the subject in gender and number

Past Conditional = would have verbed

To form the conditional past,

1. conjugate auxiliary verb (avoir or être) in the conditional

2. plug in past participle

3. for verbs whose auxiliary is être, add “e” or “s” to past participle to match it with subject in gender and number

Futur Anterieur = will have verbed

To form this tense,

1. conjugate the auxiliary verb (être or avoir) in the future tense

2. plug in the past participle

3. if the auxiliary verb is être, add “e” or “s” to the past participle to match the subject in gender and number