The Passé Composé – French Past Tense For Beginners

What Is The Passé Composé In French?

The Passé Composé is a French pass tense and it is probably the most important past tense.

When we compare it to English, it can be a bit confusing, as this one tense can be translated into 3 different tenses in English.

If I say “j’ai dansé”

This can mean

I have danced – English present perfect

I danced – English simple past

I did dance – English past emphatic

Who knew English had so many past tenses! However, if you look at the English equivalents, there is not too much difference in what is being said so it’s easy to see how the French can bundle these 3 tenses into one.   

To make things confusing the French do have a ‘Passé simple’, which is the same as our ‘simple past’, but this is rarely used and you will only see this in literature and now the Passé composé can be used to say the same thing in spoken French. 

When To Use The Passé Composé?

The Passé Composé is the most commonly used past tense in spoken French.

We use to talk about something in the past that is finished/ completed.

How To Use The Passé Composé?

If we want to say we did something in the past, we need to make the verb be in the past tense. Just like verbs in the present tense, verbs in the in the Passé Composé have rules how to conjugate them to change them into the past tense.  (Like in English how we add –ed to make something past tense – dance becomes danced)

However, we also need an auxiliary verb to make this verb work in the past tense. This of course means we need either Avoir or Etre to help us.

We form the Passé Composé by using avoir/etre in the present tense and then adding the conjugated past tense verb (the thing we want to make in the past tense eg “danced”. I will explain below to how conjugate these)

If we take the example from above it makes more sense

j’ai dansé

As you can see, avoir (the verb to have) is being use here in the present tense – j’ai – I have

We then have the verb danser (to dance) which is conjugated into the past form – dansé – danced

So when add it together we get j’ai dansé – I have danced

That is how easy the Passé Composé can be.

Etre or Avoir In The Passé Composé

We will start by asking what auxiliary to use. This is very simple nearly every verb you will use in the passé compose will use Avoir.

There are only a handful of verbs that use Etre, which you just need to learn. The following mnemonic will help you remember them.

DR MRS P VANDERTRAMP

Devenir	To become
Revenir	To recover
Mourir	To die
Retourner	To return
Sortir	To go out
Passer	To pass
Venir	To come
Arriver	To arrive
Naitre	To be born
Descendre	To go down
Entrer	To go in
Rentrer	To return
Tomber	To fall
Rester	To stay
Aller	To go
Monter	To go up
Partir	To leave

If you are using a reflective verb in the passé composé, then this will also use etre as its auxiliary verb.

Verb Conjugation In The Passé Composé

To conjugate a verb into the passé compose it is very easy. You still have the 3 groups of verbs with their different endings; however, the passé compose uses the same ending for every pronoun.

Verbs Ending In -ER

You remove the -ER and add -é

Danser – to danse (which will use avoir in passé compose)

Prounoun	Avoir	Danser
J’	Ai	dansé	I danced
Tu	As	dansé	You danced
Il/elle	A	dansé	He/she danced
Nous	Avons	dansé	We danced
Vous	Avez	dansé	You danced
Ils/elles	Ont	dansé	They danced

Verbs Ending In -IR

You remove the –IR and add -i

Finir – to finish (which will use avoir in passé compose)

Prounoun	Avoir	Finir
J’	Ai	Fini	I finished
Tu	As	Fini	You finished
Il/elle	A	Fini	He/she finished
Nous	Avons	Fini	We finished
Vous	Avez	Fini	You finshed
Ils/elles	Ont	Fini	They finished

Verbs Ending in –RE

You remove the –RE and add -u

Attendre – to wait (which will use avoir in passé compose)

Prounoun	Avoir	Attendre
J’	Ai	attendu	I waited
Tu	As	attendu	You waited
Il/elle	A	attendu	He/she waited
Nous	Avons	attendu	We waited
Vous	Avez	attendu	You waited
Ils/elles	Ont	attendu	They waited

As you can see the endings for the 3 main verb groups are really simple and easy to remember.

Irregular Verb Conjugation In The Passé Composé

As you already know, there are lots of irregular verbs.

There are no real rules for how irregular verbs are formed in the passé composé, so you will just have to learn their conjugation endings as you come across them.

The good news is that the irregular verbs also use Avoir as their auxiliary; unless they are one of the verbs in Dr MRS P VANDERTRAMP (aller, venir, naitre) then they will use etre.

Negation and The Passé Composé

Making a sentence negative in the passé compose is similar to the present tense. We can use Ne …pas we just need to make sure put it in the right place.

The Ne… pas should go around the auxiliary verb (etre/avoir).

j’ai dansé – I danced

Will become

Je n’ai pas dansé – I have not danced

Remember French negation works like it does in English. It is the “have” that we want to turn to “Have not” which is why the ne.. pas goes around this part. The word “danced” does not need changed.

You can also see that the ‘ne’ has been shortened in the example above to n’ as French do not like vowels going into vowels, which is also why the j’ has reversed back to je. There is no longer a vowel going into a vowel as the N from ne has got in the way.

Plurals and Gender In The Passé Composé

When we use a verb with etre in the passé composé, there is a little extra rule we need to follow.

The verb in the past tense needs to agree with the gender and number of the pronoun it is talking about.

If we look at DR MRS P VANDERTRAMP (as these verbs use etre) and we look at “devenir – to become” it will make more sense.

I became  – je suis devenu.

Nothing unusual about this, it follows the rule as above. I removed the -IR and added a –U to the verb devenir to make it the past tense. 

The same is also true for “he became – il est devenu” which of course is masculine. When we look at the feminine version of this we will see there is a slight change.

She became – elle est devenue

There is an extra –e on the verb, which denotes it’s feminine. The verb now agrees with the pronoun (she)

A similar thing happens when we have a plural pronoun.

We became – nous sommes devenus

There is now an -S on the end of the verb to show that we are talking about a number of people (we).

When we look a plural group of females (elles) we will see that we get both an –E to show it’s feminine and an –S to show it’s more than one.

The girls became – les filles sont devenues

This table can help you remember it easier.

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	–	-e
Plural	-s	-es

Conclusion

The paseé compose can seem a little complicated, but it is actually quite simple when you start using it. It just takes a little time and little effort to learn the verbs that use etre and then to remember how they need to match in gender and number.

However, as most verbs actually use avoir, it is easy to remember the simple conjugations and simple way to form the sentence. You will notice the passé compose being used a lot when you read and listen to French so you quickly get used to using it.

(Read the next lesson – l’imparfait – French Past Tense)