The Past Tense in French: Part 1 © Dr. Catherine Miskow THE PAST

The Past Tense in French: Part 1
© Dr. Catherine Miskow
THE PAST TENSE IN FRENCH
French has several different forms of the past tense. Unlike Spanish and English, languages that
use a simple (one word) past tense, French uses a compound (2 word) past tense. This tense is
known as the passé composé (or ‘compound past.’) Since English makes only limited use of
compound past tenses, the passé composé can be considered equivalent to the “~ed” form of a
verb in English.

Forming Past Participles
Past participles are organized based on the class of verb that they come from: ~er verbs,
~ir verbs and ~re verbs. Depending on your textbook, you may not yet have learned
about verbs other than ~er verbs.
~ER verbs
Remove the ~er and
replace it with é
~IR verbs
Remove the ~ir and replace Ex: Choisir=>chois~=>choisi
it with an ~i
Remove the ~re and
Ex: Vendre=>vend~=>vendu
replace it with a ~u
~RE verbs
Ex:
Manger=>mang~=>mangé
Numerous verbs also have irregular past participles that do not follow any of these rules;
these irregulars just need to be memorized. Learn these basic irregular ones for now:
o AVOIR=>Eu
o FAIRE=>Fait
o PRENDRE=>Pris

Formation of the Passé Composé
The passé compose consists of two parts—an auxiliary (aka ‘helping) verb and a past
participle.
o The auxiliary (helping) verb is either AVOIR or ÊTRE, conjugated in the
present tense. Which one you use depends on the context of the sentence,
although 99% of the verbs will use Avoir as their helping verb.
o The past participle expresses the action that took place in the past.
 Qu’est ce que vous avez mangé pour le petit-déjeuner ?
Helping verb past participle

J’ai
Helping verb
mangé un croissant.
past participle
In the two examples above, the present tense form of “avoir” is the helping verb,
while “Manger” is the verb you wish to express in the past tense, so it becomes a
past participle.
The Past Tense in French: Part 1
© Dr. Catherine Miskow
Let’s look at a sample conjugation paradigm, the verb “Parler” (to speak)
Subject Pronoun
Avoir form
Past Participle
Translation
Je (J’)
Ai
Parlé
I spoke
Tu
As
Parlé
You (fam) spoke
Il/Elle/On
A
Parlé
He,She, Someone
spoke
Nous
Avons
Parlé
We spoke
Vous
Avez
Parlé
You (form) spoke
Ils/Elles
Ont
Parlé
They spoke
Notice that the past participle is invariable, regardless of the gender or number of the
person or persons who do the action.
An ~er verb will always have an é on the end of its past participle. This feature is the
only feature that distinguishes it from the present tense form.

The Passé Composé with Être as a helping verb
Approximately 1% of the verbs in the French language will used être as their auxiliary verb.
Most of these verbs are verbs of motion that involve coming or going1.
The past participles of verbs conjugated with être behave like adjectives in that they agree in
gender and number with the person or persons doing the action.
o Ex: Mon mari et moi, nous sommes allés à la banque.
 In this example, we have two people (‘nous’) and a mixed couple, so the past
participle will take an ‘S’ in order to agree with the subject of ‘nous.’
o Ex 2: Julie est née le 20 novembre, 1996.
 In this example, the person doing the action is a woman (Julie), so the past
participle requires an extra ‘E’.
o Ex 3: Claudine et Annabelle sont retournées à la maison à 6h
 In this example, we have two girls doing the action, so the past participle
requires not only an extra ‘E ‘ but an ‘S’ as well.

1
o Ex. 4: Jean-Paul est allé au concert hier soir.
In this example, there is only one person doing the action, and that person is a male;
therefore, there is no modification needed to the past participle.
The linguistic explanation is that these verbs are all intransitive verbs, meaning that they
cannot take a direct object without a preposition intervening. For example, we can say, in
English, “I walked the dog” but we cannot say “I went school.” This is because the verb “to
go” is intransitive.
The Past Tense in French: Part 1
© Dr. Catherine Miskow

The list of verbs that take Être as the Auxiliary Verb
Below is the list of verbs that take être as the helping verb. Note that some of these verbs
have irregular past participles; these are highlighted in blue in the chart.
Verb
Meaning
MS past part. MP past part. FS past part. FP past part.
Devenir
To become
Devenu
Devenus
Devenue
Devenues
Rester
To stay
Resté
Restés
Restée
Restées
Mourir
To die
Mort
Morts
Morte
Mortes
Retourner
To Return
Retourné
Retournés
Retournée
Retournées
Sortir
To go out
Sorti
Sortis
Sortie
Sorties
Venir
To come
Venu
Venus
Venue
Venues
Aller
To go
Allé
Allés
Allée
Allées
Naître
To be born
Né
Nés
Née
Nées
Descendre
To go down Descendu
Descendus
Descendue
Descendues
Entrer
To enter
Entré
Entrés
Entrée
Entrées
Revenir
To come
Revenu
Revenus
Revenue
Revenues
back
Tomber
To fall
Tombé
Tombés
Tombée
Tombées
Arriver
To arrive
Arrivé
Arrivés
Arrivée
Arrivées
Monter
To go up
Monté
Montés
Montée
Montées
Passer
To pass by
Passé
Passés
Passée
Passées
To stop off
Partir
To leave
Parti
Partis
Partie
Parties
Rentrer
To return
Rentré
Rentrés
Rentrée
Rentrées
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