It's often said that the passé composé is difficult. Do you really think so? Then let me prove you wrong in this video. With a few tips and tricks, you'll feel a lot better in using it in French!
When to use the passé composé in French?
Before diving headlong into the conjugation and the rules, you need to know when to use it.
In most cases, the passé composé expresses a one-off action completed in the past, with or without a definite duration.
For example: je suis allé au cinéma la semaine dernière, the action is over, and there's a time marker to indicate it: la semaine dernière. J'ai étudié la linguistique pendant 3 ans. Another completed action associated with a definite duration, pendant 3 ans.
I could also talk to you about the succession of actions in the past, which amounts to the same thing. That's all there is to it! Remember the notion of completion, of finality, and you'll be fine.
How to conjugate verbs in passé composé?
Now for its conjugation. It's called passé composé, so there are several parts. Here's how it works in a sentence.
Subject + ne + auxiliary être or avoir in present + pas + past participle
Pick the correct auxiliary, être or avoir?
Most verbs work with avoir except for a very specific list, so if you're not sure, choose avoir and you might be lucky: j'ai mangé, j'ai pas fini, j'ai dû etc.
Be careful, the trick with verbs of movement doesn't work. We say j'ai couru (I ran) and not je suis couru (I ran), but there is movement when you run, isn't there?
In fact, you need to know a specific list of verbs, about a dozen, the most useful of which are aller, arriver, partir, sortir, venir, their compound forms, revenir and devenir, which are the same as venir. Finally, let's not forget the pronominal verbs, se lever, se reposer.
If it's a pronominal verb, you'll always use être. je me suis levé, nous nous sommes reposés. Remember that in most cases, it's avoir except for a few verbs.
However, there are 6 verbs that pose problems because both auxiliaries can be used and the meaning of the verb changes: sortir, rentrer, monter, descendre, passer and retourner. J'ai sorti les poubelles, I took out the trash, with COD, je suis sorti, I went out no COD. For these special verbs, we use avoir when there is a COD, otherwise être. That's for the choice of auxiliary.
Most important past participles you must know
As for past participles, learn those of the most common verbs, such as
Faire, j'ai fait, prendre, j'ai pris, avoir, j'ai eu, pouvoir, j'ai pu, and so on.
If you know the past participles of the 30-50 most common verbs by heart, then you'll be able to use the passé composé naturally, without thinking.
The easy rule for past participle agreement
As you know, the past participle is always agreed in gender and number with the subject when the auxiliary is être. Elle est allée, but that makes no difference when spoken except for mourir, Il est mort, elle est morte.
It's a completely different matter with avoir. In j'ai mangé un croissant, there is no agreement because it's a perfectly normal sentence. However, if the COD is placed before the auxiliary, then there is agreement. And this is often heard orally. The croissant que j'ai mangé, no difference, l'option que j'ai prise, there is a difference, les erreurs que vous avez faites.
Be careful with this little rule. There are others, but we've just seen the main ones, and as I always say, we're not going to bother with rules that we don't use very much, unless you want to take a certificate!
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