The passé composé of –er verbs with avoir le français I Chaptire 7 Grammaire 2
Le passé Composé To tell what happened in the past in French, use a verb in the passé composé. The passé composé (compound past) has two parts: a helping verb (avoir) and a past participle. You form the past participle of regular –er verbs by replacing –er with –é. j’ai cherché nous avons cherché tu as cherché vous avez cherché il/elle a cherché ils/elles ont cherché
Le passé composé The passé composé is the equivalent of these three ways to express the past tense in English. J’ai cherché I looked for. I did look for. I have looked for. To say what didn’t happen, place ne...pas around the conjugated form of the helping verb avoir. Je n’ai pas cherché I didn’t look for. I have not looked for.
Irregular past participles These verbs will also use avoir as the helping verb in the passé composé, but they have irregular past participles. Memorize them!!!!! être →été (was/were) avoir →eu (had) vouloir →voulu (wanted) boire →bu (drank) lire →lu (read)
More irregular past participles voir →vu (saw) mettre →mis (wore; put; placed) prendre →pris (took; had food/drink) faire →fait (made/did) pleuvoir →plu (rained)
Adverbs with the passé composé Here are some common adverbial expressions used when talking about the past. They can be placed at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. hier matin/hier après-midi/hier soir: yesterday... lundi dernier: last Monday la semaine dernière: last week le mois dernier: last month l’année dernière: last year