Point de départ In Leçon 6A, you learned to form the passé composé with avoir. Some verbs, however, form the passé composé with être. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
To form the passé composé of these verbs, use a present-tense form of être and the past participle of the verb that expresses the action. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
Many of the verbs that take être in the passé composé, involve motion Many of the verbs that take être in the passé composé, involve motion. You have already learned a few of them: aller, arriver, descendre, partir, passer, rentrer, sortir, and tomber. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
The past participles of verbs conjugated with être agree with their subjects in number and gender. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
To make a verb negative in the passé composé, place ne/n’ and pas around the auxiliary verb, in this case, être. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
Here are a few more verbs that take être instead of avoir in the passé composé. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
Note that the verb passer takes être when it means to pass by, but it takes avoir when it means to spend time. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
To form a question using inversion in the passé composé, invert the subject pronoun and the conjugated form of être. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
Place short adverbs such as déjà, encore, bien, mal, and beaucoup between the auxiliary verb être or pas and the past participle. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
Essayez! Choisissez le participe passé approprié. 1. Vous êtes (nés/né) en 1959, Monsieur? 2. Les élèves sont (partis/parti) le 2 juin. 3. Les filles sont (rentrées/rentrés) de vacances. 4. Simone de Beauvoir est-elle (mort/morte) en 1986? 5. Mes frères sont (sortis/sortie). 6. Paul n’est pas (resté/restée) chez sa grand-mère. 7. Tu es (arrivés/arrivée) avant dix heures, Sophie. 8. Jacqueline a (passée/passé) une semaine en Suisse. © 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.