Forming the Passé Composé The passé composé, as the name indicates, is a compound tense made up of an auxiliary verb and a past participle.. Regular verbs and the passé composé To form t
Trang 1Chapter 12
Comprehending the Passé Composé
and the Pluperfect Tenses
In This Chapter
Making the passé composé with avoir
Forming the passé composé with être
Knowing how to say no in the passé composé
Making the pluperfect
Unlike the imperfect tense, which describes what was happening (see Chapter 11), the passé composé recounts events that have already taken place and at a specific time in the past You use the passé composé to express a completed action in the past For exam-ple, with this tense you can recount what you have done and accomplished, where you’ve been, and the people you’ve met yesterday, last week, last month, or even years ago
Meanwhile, the pluperfect tense is closely related because it’s also a compound past tense just like the passé composé However, it describes events that have taken place even before
the passé composé The meaning of the pluperfect in English is had For example, Nous
avions déjà mangé quand papa est rentré means We had already eaten when dad came
home Had eaten is in the pluperfect and came is in the passé composé because one action
happened before the other action
This chapter shows you how to form the passé composé and pluperfect tenses and pro-vides plenty of opportunities for you to practice them
Forming the Passé Composé
The passé composé, as the name indicates, is a compound tense made up of an auxiliary
verb and a past participle The French language has only two auxiliaries: avoir (to have) and
être (to be).
To form the passé composé, you first conjugate the auxiliaries in the present tense and then add the past participle (Sounds simple enough, right?) To make it even easier, remember
that most verbs take the auxiliary avoir However, certain verbs, especially those that
express motion, such as aller (to go), partir (to leave), and venir (to come) take être I start
with verbs that take avoir as their auxiliary.
Trang 2avoir (to have)
J’ai trois enfants (I have three children.)
Regular verbs and the passé composé
To form the past participle of regular -er verbs, such as parler (to speak), simply drop
the r and add an accent aigu to the e, like so: é (parlé) Now add this past participle
to the auxiliary and you’ve formed the past tense
The passé composé has three meanings in English For example, J’ai parlé means I
spoke, I have spoken, and I did speak Even verbs with spelling changes (see Chapter 3),
such as jeter (to throw), acheter (to buy), essayer (to try), and espérer (to hope), have a
regular past participle Simply drop the r from the infinitive and add accent aigu to the
e, like so: jeté, acheté, essayé, and espéré.
For the regular -ir verbs, such as finir (to finish), simply drop the -r and voilà: fini Finally, for the regular -re verbs, like vendre (to sell), drop the -re and add a u, to get vendu.
To form the passé composé, you take the present tense of the auxiliary verb and add the appropriate past participle Check out the following tables that provide examples
of three verbs in the passé composé, conjugated in their entirety Note that each has
avoir as its auxiliary.
parler (to speak)
Nous avons parlé aux enfants (We spoke to the children.)
finir (to finish)
Elle a fini ses devoirs (She finished her homework.)
vendre (to sell)
Les étudiants ont vendu leurs livres (The students sold their books.)
Trang 3Now it’s your turn Put the following verbs in the passé composé (Check out the sample problem if you need any clarification.)
Q.Nous _ (nettoyer) la maison
A.Nous avons nettoyé la maison (We cleaned the house.)
1 Tu _ (rendre) les livres.
2 Elle _ (voyager).
3 Nous _ (choisir).
4 Ils _ (dîner).
5 Je _ (étudier).
6 Vous _ (réussir).
7 Ils _ (vendre) leur voiture.
8 Tu _ (perdre) tes clés.
9 Nous _ (travailler).
10 Elle _ (réfléchir).
Irregular verbs and the passé composé Many French verbs have an irregular past participle Usually, if a verb is irregular in the present tense (like the verbs presented in Chapter 4), then it also has an irregular past
participle However, irregular verbs that follow the same conjugation pattern as partir
(to leave) have regular past participles These verbs include sortir (to go out), dormir (to sleep), mentir (to lie), servir (to serve), and aller (to go) For the -ir verbs like partir,
just drop the r, and for the verb aller, drop the r and add an accent aigu on the e I
group the verbs with an irregular past participle here according to their endings The
previous section explains that you form the past participle of regular -re verbs by drop-ping the -re and adding a u Many irregular verbs (those ending in -oir, -re, or -ir) have
a past participle that also ends in u Table 12-1 lists the irregular verbs and their past participles that end in u.
Table 12-1 Irregular Verbs and Their Past Participles Ending in u
Infinitive Past Participle apercevoir (to see, to perceive) aperçu appartenir (to belong to) appartenu avoir (to have) eu battre (to beat) battu boire (to drink) bu
(continued)
Trang 4Table 12-1 (continued)
Infinitive Past Participle connaître (to know) connu convaincre (to convince) convaincu courir (to run) couru croire (to believe) cru décevoir (to disappoint) déçu devenir (to become) devenu devoir (to owe, to have to) dû falloir (to be necessary, to have to) fallu lire (to read) lu paraître (to appear) paru plaire (to please) plu pleuvoir (to rain) plu pouvoir (to be able to) pu recevoir (to receive) reçu revenir (to come back) revenu savoir (to know) su tenir (to hold) tenu venir (to come) venu vivre (to live) vécu
vouloir (to want) voulu
Some past participles end in t Table 12-2 shows those verbs along with their past
participles
Table 12-2 Irregular Verbs and Their Past Participles Ending in t
Infinitive Past Participle conduire (to drive) conduit construire (to construct, to build) construit couvrir (to cover) couvert dire (to say) dit écrire (to write) écrit faire (to do, to make) fait
Trang 5Infinitive Past Participle inscrire (to note, to write down) inscrit offrir (to offer) offert ouvrir (to open) ouvert souffrir (to suffer) souffert
Table 12-3 lists some irregular verbs whose past participles end in s Note that you create the past participle the same way for any verb that ends in -mettre or -prendre.
Table 12-3 Irregular Verbs and Their Past Participles Ending in s
Infinitive Past Participle mettre (to put, to place) mis
admettre (to admit) admis prendre (to take) pris apprendre (to learn) appris
Some past participles of irregular verbs end in i Table 12-4 shows the irregular verbs that have past participles ending in i.
Table 12-4 Irregular Verbs and Their Past Participles Ending in i
Infinitive Past Participle partir (to leave) parti
rire (to laugh) ri sortir (to go out) sorti sourire (to smile) souri suivre (to follow, to take a course) suivi
In addition to avoir (which you can see more on earlier in this section), three other
irregular verbs have the following forms in the past participle Table 12-5 lists these four irregular verbs and their past participles
Table 12-5 Irregular Verbs and Their Past Participles
Infinitive Past Participle avoir (to have) eu
mourir (to die) mort naître (to be born) né
Trang 6Try putting the following verbs in the passé composé If you don’t remember how to spell their past participles, refer to the tables in this chapter Check out the sample problem
Q.Elle _ (offrir) des bonbons aux enfants
A.Elle a offert des bonbons aux enfants (She offered candy to the children.)
11 Nous _ (conduire).
12 Ils _ (courir).
13 Je _ (lire).
14 Vous _ (souffrir).
15 Tu _ (sourire).
16 Elle _ (apercevoir) le chien.
17 Nous _ (voir) le Président.
18 Elles _ (apprendre) le français.
19 Vous _ (suivre) les cours.
20 Tu _ (vivre) en France.
Making sure the past participle agrees with the preceding direct object
Throughout this section, I show you the way to form the past participles, but you need to know another important fact before you can spell them correctly You need to make sure the past participles are in agreement with the preceding direct object if there is one Depending on the direct object, you need to make the following changes
to the past participle:
If the preceding direct object is masculine singular, then leave the past participle alone
If the preceding direct object is feminine singular, add an e.
If the preceding direct object is masculine plural, add an s.
If the preceding direct object is feminine plural, add an es.
Check out the following examples to see how the past participle can change
J’ai mis les fleurs dans le vase (I put the flowers in the vase.)
Je les ai mises dans le vase (I put them in the vase.)
To replace the direct object les fleurs, which is feminine plural, with the direct object
pronoun les, which means them, place the direct object pronoun before the verb, and
then the past participle mis agrees with les and therefore it is spelled mises I provide
one more example
Trang 7Il a vu Nicole (He saw Nicole.)
Il l’a vue (He saw her.)
Table 12-6 is a list of the direct object pronouns
Table 12-6 Direct Object Pronouns
French Pronoun English Equivalent
Note: The pronominal pronouns me, te, se, nous, and vous can also be direct object pronouns Check out
Chapter 5 for more on pronominal verbs.
Drop the vowel of me, te, se, le, and la and add an apostrophe when the verb begins with a vowel or a mute h In the passé composé when the auxiliary is avoir, this is
always the case
Ils m’ont prévenu(e) (They warned me.)
Je t’ai cherché(e) (I looked for you.) Nous l’avons fini(e) (We finished it.)
Replace the direct object, which is underlined in each question, with a direct object pronoun Make sure the past participle agrees with the preceding direct object pro-noun; if it doesn’t, make the appropriate changes, like in the following example
Q.Elle a aperçu la foule (She noticed the crowd.)
A.Elle l’a aperçue (She noticed it.)
21 Elle a appris la leçon.
22 Nous avons pris le train.
23 Ils ont fait les devoirs (masculine, plural)
Trang 824 J’ai vu Hélène.
25 Vous avez récité le poème.
26 Nous avons appelé les enfants (masculine, plural)
27 Il a reçu les cartes (feminine, plural)
28 Tu as écrit la dissertation.
29 Ils ont compris le journaliste.
30 Elle a rencontré ses amis (masculine, plural)
Creating the Passé Composé with Être
Some specific verbs, such as verbs of motion and verbs that aren’t followed by a direct
object, are intransitive and take the auxiliary être (An intransitive verb is one that isn’t
followed by a direct object Check out Chapter 1 for more info.) You conjugate the verb
être in the present tense and add the past participle of the verb you want.
être (to be)
Vous êtes optimiste (You are optimistic.)
To remember which verbs take être (to be), picture the house of être (see Figure 12-1).
Picture a huge door, an elegant staircase, a bed, and a chair Are you wondering how
this visual aid can help you? Many of the verbs that take être are what I call “door”
verbs You can go, come, return, enter, arrive, and pass through the door in the house
of être What about the staircase? You can go up, go down, and if you aren’t careful, you can fall Now picture the bed Way before hospitals, people were born in the house and died in the house So these verbs take être The last types of verbs belonging to this category are all pronominal verbs, which take être as their auxiliary You form the passé composé of être verbs the same way as avoir verbs You conjugate the verb être
in the present tense followed by the past participle of the verbs
Il est arrivé à 9 heures (He arrived at 9 o’clock.)
Trang 9Table 12-7 shows the verbs that use être when forming the passé composé, along with
their past participles
Table 12-7 The House of Être: Forming the Passé Composé
Infinitive Past Participle aller (to go) allé
arriver (to arrive) arrivé descendre* (to go downstairs, to descend) descendu devenir (to become) devenu entrer (to enter) entré monter* (to go up stairs, to climb) monté mourir (to die) mort naître (to be born) né partir (to leave) parti passer* (to pass, to spend) passé rentrer* (to come back home) rentré rester (to stay) resté retourner* (to return) retourné revenir (to come back) revenu sortir* (to go out) sorti tomber (to fall) tombé venir (to come) venu
* These verbs can take either auxiliary, avoir or être They take the auxiliary avoir when they’re followed by a direct object However, they take être when they aren’t followed by a direct object.
The House of Être
ARRIVER RENTRER VENIR ENTRER
RETOURNER
REVENIR DEVENIR
RESTER
ALLER
NAITRE = MOURIR
TOM
BER DE EN E TOMBER DE
ENDRE
MON
TER MONTER
PASSER
SORTIR
PARTIR
Figure 12-1:
The House
of Être:
Remember that these verbs use être in the passé composé
Trang 10Making sure the subject and participle agree
Just like avoir verbs have rules of agreement where the past participle agrees in gender and number with the preceding direct object, être verbs have rules for agreement as well The past participle of être verbs agrees with the subject Thus,
If the subject is masculine singular, leave the past participle alone
If the subject is feminine singular, add an e to the past participle.
If the subject is masculine plural, add an s.
If the subject is feminine plural, add an es.
Look at the following example conjugated in the passé composé
partir (to leave)
Nous sommes partis à midi (We left at noon.)
Put these verbs in the passé composé Don’t forget to conjugate the auxiliary être in
the present and then add the past participle Remember to make sure the past partici-ple agrees with the subject
Q.Elle _ (monter) dans un taxi
A.Elle est montée dans un taxi (She got in a taxi.)
31 Nous _ (aller) au cinéma.
32 Ils _ (naître) en Europe.
33 Je _ (tomber).
34 Vous _ (descendre) du train.
35 Tu _ (arriver) en retard.
36 Elle _ (devenir) célèbre.
37 Il _ (mourir) en 1969.
38 Nous _ (rentrer) tôt.
39 Je _ (rester) à la maison.
40 Ils _ (venir) ensemble.