Source: Wikipedia Pass compos (French pronunciation: , compound past) is the most commonly used past tense in the

modern French language. It is used to express an action that has been completed at the time of speech, or at some (possibly unknown) time in the past. Pass compos originally corresponded in function to the English present perfect, and is still occasionally used as such (ex: J'ai fini = I have finished), while its main use is as a past tense. It is commonly used as a "narration tense" for oral and written narration. Note that in formal writing, even for children, narration is usually done with the pass simple instead of the pass compos. Pass Compos is formed using an auxiliary verb and the past participle of a verb. The auxiliary verb is typically avoir ("to have") but sometimes tre("to be") This is the conjugation of avoir: j'ai (I have) nous avons (we have) tu as (you have) vous avez (you have) il/elle/on a (he/she/it has) ils/elles ont (they have) This is the conjugation of tre: je suis (I am) nous sommes (we are) tu es (you are) vous tes (you are) il/elle/on est (he/she/it is) ils/elles sont (they are) The following is a list of verbs that use tre as their auxiliary verbs in pass compos:

D R

R S

ester to stay rest ortir to exit sorti

enir to come venu ller to go all N atre to be born n

V A

escendre to descend descendu ntrer to enter entr R etourner to return retourn T omber to fall tomb R entrer- to re-enter- rentr A rriver to arrive arriv M ourir to die mort P artir to leave parti P asser par to pass by pass
D E

The above are commonly remembered using the acronym DR and MRS VAN DER TRAMPP. In addition to these, at least two other verbs are conjugated with tre:

Passer to pass by (this case only) pass Dcder to decease dcd

The verbs that use tre as an auxiliary verb are intransitive verbs that usually indicate motion or change of state. Since some of these verbs can be used as a transitive verb as well, they will instead take avoir as an auxiliary in those instances e.g. Il a sorti un outil pour le rparer. In addition to the above verbs, all reflexive/pronominal verbs use tre as their auxiliary verb. A reflexive verb is a verb that relates back to the speaker, e.g. Je me suis tromp. To form the past participle for first group verbs (-ER verbs) and aller too, drop the -er and add . parler (to speak) - er + = parl (spoken) arriver (to arrive) - er + = arriv (arrived)

evenir to become devenu evenir to come back revenu onter to go up mont

manger (to eat)

- er + = mang (eaten)

To form the past participle for second group verbs (-IR verbs with -ISSANT gerund), drop the -ir and add -i. finir (to finish) - ir + i = fini (finished) choisir (to choose) - ir + i = choisi (chosen) grandir (to grow up) - ir + i = grandi (grown up)

The irregular past participles (which are often found with the third group verbs) must be memorized separately, of which the following are a few.:

acqurir: acquis (acquired) apprendre: appris (learnt/learned) atteindre: atteint (attained) attendre: attendu (waited) avoir: eu (had) battre: battu (beaten) boire: bu (drunk/drunken) comprendre: compris (understood) conduire: conduit (driven) connatre: connu (known) construire: construit (constructed) courir: couru (run) couvrir: couvert (covered) craindre: craint (feared) croire: cru (believed) dcevoir: du (disappointed) dcouvrir: dcouvert (discovered) devoir: d (had to) dire: dit (said) crire: crit (written) tre: t (been) faire: fait (done, made) fondre: fondu (to touch inappropriately) instruire: instruit (prepared) joindre: joint (joined)

lire: mettre: lumis (read) placed) (put, offrir: offert (offered) ouvrir: ouvert (opened) paratre: paru (come out) peindre: peint (painted) pouvoir: pu (been able to) prendre: pris (taken) produire: produit (produced) recevoir: reu (received) savoir: su (known) souffrir: souffert (hurt) surprendre: surpris (surprised) suivre: suivi (followed) tenir: tenu (held, holden) vendre: vendu (sold) vivre: vcu (lived) voir: vu (seen) vouloir: voulu (wanted) The pass compos is formed by the auxiliary verb followed by the past participle: J'ai vu (I saw) Tu as parl (You spoke) Le garon est sorti (The boy went out)

The pass compos is usually translated into English as a simple past tense, "I saw." More rarely it might be translated as a present perfect, "I have seen," or an emphatic past tense, "I did see." The Past Participle almost always agrees with the subject when the auxiliary verb is tre. When the auxiliary verb is avoir, the past participle must agree with the direct object if the direct object precedes the past participle in the sentence. Recall that in French, agreement is accomplished by adding an -e to the end of the past participle if the subject/direct object in question is feminine and an -s if it is plural. (Note that

for verbs of the first and second group, the past participle ends with a vowel, thus the masculine and feminine, singular and plural, forms are all pronounced the same. Within the third group verbs, one can find past participles ending with a mute consonant, such as mis and fait, and these do change pronunciation.) Les hommes sont arrivs. (The men arrived.) Les filles sont venues. (The girls came.) Nous nous sommes lev(e)s. (We got up, extra e required if nous refers to a group of females.) J'ai vu la voiture. (I saw the car) Je l'ai vue. (I saw it, referring to the car) Les voitures que j'ai vues taient rouges. (The cars that I saw were red, que relative to Les voitures, feminine plural) O sont mes lunettes ? O est-ce que je les ai mises ? (Where are my glasses? Where did I put them?) Voil l'erreur que j'ai faite. (There's the mistake I made, que relative to l'erreur, feminine singular)

Source: CliffNotes The Pass Compos

The pass compos (compound past tense), also referred to as the past indefinite, is made up of two parts, a helping verb and a past participle.

It is formed by using the present tense of the helping verb avoir ( j'ai, tu as, il/elle a, nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles ont) or tre ( je suis, tu es, il/elle est, nous sommes, vous tes, ils/elles sont) and adding a past participle. The pass compos with avoir The past participle of regular verbs is formed by dropping the infinitive ending and adding for -er verbs, i for -ir verbs, and u for re verbs. The past participles of irregular verbs must be memorized. J'ai travaill hier. (I worked yesterday.) Il a choisi un bon livre. (He chose a good book.) Ils ont vendu leur maison. (They sold their house.) Past participles of verbs that use avoir as their helping verb agree in number and gender with a preceding direct-object noun or pronoun. This is done by adding an -e to indicate a feminine noun or pronoun and an -s to indicate a plural noun or pronoun. No -s is added to a participle that already ends in -s: La mousse Je l'ai prpare hier. (The mousse? I prepared it yesterday.) Voici les trophes que mon fils a reus. (Here are the trophies that my son received.) Je ne me rappelle pas les bus que nous avons pris. (I don't remember the buses we took.) The pass compos with tre Only 17 verbs use tre as their helping verb. These verbs generally, but not always, express motion or a change of place, state, or condition,

such as going up, going down, going in, going out, or remaining. The verbs are: descendre (to go down) rester (to remain) mourir (to die) retourner (to return) sortir (to go out) venir (to come) arriver (to arrive) natre (to be born) devenir (to become) entrer (to enter) rentrer (to return) tomber (to fall) revenir (to come back) aller (to go) monter (to go up) partir (to leave) passer (to pass by) When tre is the helping verb, the past participle must agree in number and gender with the subject; this is done by adding -e for a feminine subject and -s for a plural subject: Il est rentr. (He returned home.) Elle est ne en juin. (She was born in June.) Nous sommes revenus hier. (We came back yesterday.) Elles sont tombes. (They fell.) Verbs that use tre or avoir The verbs descendre (to go down), monter (to go up), passer (to pass by), rentrer(to return home), retourner (to return), and sortir (to go out) generally use tre as their helping verb. They may use avoir when the sentence contains a direct object. In these cases, their meaning changes: descendre (to take down), monter (to take up), passer (to spend time), rentrer (to bring in), retourner (to turn over), andsortir (to take out): Je suis descendu. (I went downstairs.)

Je suis descendu du train. (I got off the train.) J'ai descendu le livre. (I took the book down.) Il est mont. (He went upstairs.) Il a mont ses bagages. (He took his luggage upstairs.) Il est pass par l'cole. (He passed by the school.) Il a pass une heure l-bas. (He spent an hour there.) Ils sont rentrs tard. (They came home late.) Ils ont rentr le chien. (They brought in the dog.) Elle est retourne ` Nice. (She returned to Nice.) Elle a retourn la lettre. (She turned over the letter.) Je suis sortie. (I went out.) J'ai sorti mon argent. (I took out my money.) The pass compos with reflexive verbs Reflexive verbs use tre as their helping verb. When the reflexive pronoun is also the direct object, the past participle agrees with the reflexive pronoun. When the reflexive pronoun is the indirect object (and, thus, the direct object comes after the verb), there is no agreement of the past participle with the reflexive pronoun. Il s'est lev six heures. (He got up at six o'clock.) Elle s'est lave. (She washed herself.) Elle s'est lav la figure. (She washed her face.) Negating in the pass compos To negate a sentence in the pass compos, put the negative expression around the conjugated helping verb and any pronouns that precede it: Je n'ai pas fini mon dner. (I haven't finished my dinner.)

Il n'a rien dcouvert. (He discovered nothing.) Elle n'y est pas reste longtemps. (She didn't stay there a long time.) Elles ne se sont jamais maquilles. (They never put on makeup.) Questions in the pass compos To form a question in the pass compos, invert the conjugated helping verb (with any pronouns related to it preceding it) with the subject pronoun, and add a hyphen. In general, avoid inverting with je; instead, use est-ce que to form the question. With avoir, a -t- must be added when the subject is il or elle. Negatives surround the hyphenated inverted forms: As-tu oubli? (Did you forget?) Lui a-t-elle parl? (Did she speak to him?) Y est-elle arrive? (Did she arrive there?) Est-ce que j'ai tort? (Am I wrong?) N'a-t-il pas vu ce film? (Hasn't he seen this movie?) Vous tes-vous prpar( e)( s) ? (Did you prepare yourself [yourselves]?) Ne s'est-elle pas leve? (Didn't she get up?)