1. Le passé composé
(the perfect tense)

2. The perfect tense – Le passé
composé
• In French you use the perfect tense (le
passé composé) to say what you have
done in the past.
• The passé composé is usually formed by
using the present tense of
• avoir and the
• past participle of the verb, just as in
English

3. Par exemple:
• J’ai joué =
• I have played
• Nous avons gagné =
• We have won
• Elle a dormi =
• She has slept
• Tu as répondu =
• You have replied

4. Auxiliary verb
• J’ ai
• Tu as
• Il a
• Elle a
• Nous avons
• Vous avez
• Ils ont
• Elles ont

5. Past participles
• To form the past participle of –er verbs, take the
-er off the infinitive and replace it with
• -é
• Regular –ir verbs form the past participles by
taking off the
• final –r
• Regular
• -re verbs take off the final –re and replace it with
• u

6. Irregular past participles
• Avoir =
• Eu
• Boire =
• Bu
• Lire =
• Lu
• Voir =
• vu

7. • Venir =
• Venu
• Dire =
• Dit
• Écrire =
• Écrit
• Faire =
• fait

8. • Prendre =
• Pris
• Apprendre =
• Appris
• Comprendre =
• Compris
• Mettre =
• mis

9. Part 2 Next

10. • In the perfect tense most verbs take the
auxiliary verb
• Avoir
• But some take
• Être
• To help you learn which verbs take être
you can memorise the mnemonic
• MR DAMP’S TAVERN

11. MR DAMPS TAVERN
• Mourir
• Retourner
• Descendre
• Aller
• Monter
• Partir
• Sortir

12. • Tomber
• Arriver
• Venir
• Entrer
• Rester
• Naitre

13. Agreement
• Notice that with verbs that take être as the
auxiliary verb, the past
• participle agrees with the subject (the
person or thing doing the action). If the
subject is feminine you must add an extra
• -e and if the subject is plural you must add
an extra
• -s. If it is plural and feminine you must add
• -es!