In English there are two ways of forming the past tense.
You can say ‘I spoke’ or ‘I have spoken’
1. I spoke = Here only the past participle is used.
2. I have spoken =
Here the auxiliary verb ‘to have’ + the past participle
are used.
In French there is only one way of forming the past tense:
using the auxiliary verb ‘to have’ + past participle.
Further in French, for most of the nouns the auxiliary verb
avoir is used.
For a few verbs the auxiliary verb être is used.
Rule for passé compose:
1 Conjugate ‘avoir’ in present tense + past participle
of the principal verb.
2 Conjugate ‘être’ in present tense + past participle
of the principal verb.
Remember: The Passé Composé MUST have
avoir / être and a past participle.
3 How to form past participle?
a. in case of –er verbs, remove –er and add –é
example: parler
Step 1: remove -er in parler = parl
Step 2: add –é to parl = parlé
So parlé is the past participle of the verb parler.
b. in case of –ir verbs, simply remove –r from the verb.
example: finir
Step one: remove –r in finir = fini
So fini is the past participle of the verb finir
c In case of –re verbs, remove –re and add –u.
example: vendre
Step 1: remove –re in vendre = vend
Step 2 add ‘u’ to vend = vendu
So vendu is the past participle of vendre
4 When passe composé is formed with être,
the past participle will agree in number
and gender with the noun.
5 When passé is formed with avoir, there will not be
any change in the past participle.
There are certain verbs which have
irregular Past participles :
verb past participle
être été
avoir eu
faire fait
voir vu
venir venu
pouvoir pu
vouloir voulu
dire dit
devenir devenu
recevoir reçu
For the following verbs être should be used to form the passé composé.
arriver to arrive arrivé
aller to go allé
descendre to descend descendu
entrer to enter entré
monter to climb monté
mourir to die mort
naître to be born né
partir to leave parti
rester to remain resté
retourner to return retourné
sortir to exit sorti
tomber to fall tombé
venir to come venu