Au passé composé (les règles)

Question 1

To form the past participle of regular -ER verbs.

1. Drop the -ER ending.
2. Add la terminaison:

Answer 1

-é

Question 2

To form the past participle of regular -IR verbs.

1. Drop the -IR ending.
2. Add la terminaison:

Answer 2

-i

Question 3

To form the past participle of regular -RE verbs.

1. Drop the -RE ending.
2. Add la terminaison:

Answer 3

-u

Question 4

To form le passé composé, this past participle needs to be placed after a semi-auxiliary verb conjugated au présent.

These two semi-auxiliary verbs are:

Answer 4

Avoir et Être

Question 5

How can we tell whether to use Avoir or Être?

Answer 5

Avoir is used most commonly.

Être is used when the subject (doing the action) and the object (being acted upon) are the same.

This includes:

• All pronominal verbs (ex: se laver)
• Many verbs describing movement / displacement (ex: Je me suis tombé.)
• Devenir = to become
• Naitre = to be born
• Mourir = to die
• etc.

*Note: some verbs can be used with either avoir or être, the choice of which depends on the context (whether the subject + object are the same).

Question 6

Common verbs that have irregular past participles include:

Answer 6

Avoir –> eu
Boire –> bu
Connaître –> connu
Croire –> cru
Devoir –> dû
Écrire –> écrit
Être –> été
Faire –> fait
Offrir –> offert
Ouvrir –> ouvert
Lire –> lu
Mettre –> mis
Prendre –> pris
Pleuvoir –> plu
Recevoir –> reçu
Savoir –> su
Voir –> vu
Vouloir –> voulu

etc.