The Passé Composé Tense
Look at the following 3 sentences. Ali played football yesterday They have visited Paris 3 times We did not tidy the bedroom What do they have in common? Is this done in the same way in each sentence? All 3 of these English tenses can be translated by just 1 tense in French. It is called…
Each of the following sentences contains an example of the Passé Composé tense. Ali a joué au foot hier Ils ont visité Paris 3 fois Nous avons rangé la chambre What is the first thing you notice about this tense? Look at the purple highlighted words in each sentence. Familiar?
J’aiNous avons Tu asVous avez Il,elle,on aIls,elles ont The Present tense of Avoir
Now take a look at the yellow words in each sentence. These are called Past Participle- participe pass é To form the past participle, take the infinitive (the form of the verb you find in the dictionary) and do the following: For –ER verbs, drop the –r and accent the -é For –IR verbs, drop the –r For –RE verbs, drop the –re and paste on a -u Ali a joué au foot hier Ils ont visité Paris 3 fois Nous avons rangé la chambre
Change the infinitive/infinitif to the past participle/participe passé travaillertravaillé regarderregardé finir fini choisir choisi répondrerépondu entendre entendu
Ex. Il a regardé Nousavons fini J’ai répondu Present tense avoir Past participle So remember… The Passé Composé is made up of 2 parts. The first is the present tense of AVOIR (or ETRE The second is the past participle of the verb you want
Now that you know the present tense of Avoir and how to form the Past Participle, test yourself with the following sentences ont ai a avez as avons travaillu travaillé travailli J’ (travailler) aitravaillé
ont ai a avez as avons regardu regardi regardé Il (regarder) a regardé
ont ai a avez as avons finu fini finé Nous (finir)avonsfini
ont ai a avez as avons jouu joui joué Ils (jouer)ont joué
ont ai a avez as avons répondu répondi répondé Maman (répondre)arépondu
ont ai a avez as avons choisu choisi choisé Vous (choisir) avezchoisi
ont ai a avez as avons chantu chanti chanté Christina et moi (chanter)avonschanté
ont ai a avez as avons écoutu écouti écouté Reto et Marc (écouter)ont écouté
ont ai a avez as avons parlu parli parlé Tu (parler)as parlé
ont ai a avez as avons entendu entendi entendé Elle (entendre)a entendu