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1. Le pass compos
The pass compos is the most common French past tense. The
pass compos can express any of the following:
As-tu tudi ce weekend ? Oui, j'ai mang cinq fois Quand je suis arriv, j'ai vu
Did you study this hier. les fleurs.
weekend? Yes, I did eat five times When I arrived, I saw the
yesterday. flowers.
Ils ont dj mang.
They have already eaten. Nous avons visit Paris Samedi, il a vu sa mre, a
plusieurs fois. parl au mdicin et a trouv
We've visited Paris several un chat.
times. Saturday he saw his mother,
talked to the doctor, and found
a cat.
The pass compos has three possible English equivalents. For example, j'ai dans
can mean
1. I danced
2. I have danced
3. I did dance
The past participle of regular verbs is formed by dropping the infinitive ending of a verb
and adding , i, or u to -er, -ir, and -re verbs, respectively:
acqurir > acquis boire > bu comprendre > compris dcevoir > du
apprendre > appris conduire > conduit dcouvrir > dcouvert
atteindre > atteint connatre > connu devoir > d
avoir > eu construire > construit dire > dit
courir > couru
couvrir > couvert
craindre > craint
croire > cru
crire > crit faire > fait instruire > instruit joindre > joint
tre > t
lire > lu mettre > mis offrir > offert natre > n
mourir > mort ouvrir > ouvert
paratre > paru recevoir > reu savoir > su tenir > tenu
peindre > peint souffrir > souffert
pouvoir > pu suivre > suivi
prendre > pris
produire > produit
venir > venu
vivre > vcu
voir > vu
vouloir > voulu
Tu as aim Tu es devenu(e)
Generally speaking, all of the tre verbs indicate a particular kind of movement, either
literal or figurative.
For all verbs conjugated with tre, the past participle has to agree with the subject in
gender and number in all of the compound tenses:
Il est all. - He went. Elle est alle. - She went.
Ils sont alls. - They went. Elles sont alles. - They went.
Eventually you will instinctively know which verbs take tre, but in the meantime,
you might want to try one of these mnemonic devices.
La Maison d'tre
The French teach tre verbs with a visual: La Maison d'tre. Draw a house with a door,
stairs, windows, etc. and then label it with the tre verbs. For example, put someone on
the stairs going up (monter) and another going down (descendre).
Devenir
Revenir
&
Monter
Rester
Sortir
Venir
Aller
Natre
Descendre
Entrer
Rentrer
Tomber
Retourner
Arriver
Mourir
Partir
Practice:
give an order
express a desire
make a request
offer advice
recommend something
Unlike all other French verb tenses and moods, the subject pronoun is not used with the
imperative.
For example:
Fermez la porte. Ayez la bont de m'attendre.
Close the door. Please wait for me.
The above are called "affirmative commands," because they are telling someone to do
something. "Negative commands," which tell someone not to do something, are made
by placing ne in front of the verb and the appropriate negative adverb after the verb:
French imperative conjugations are relatively simple. There are only three grammatical
persons that can be used in the imperative: tu, nous, and vous, and most of the
conjugations are the same as the present tense - the only difference is that the subject
pronoun is not used in the imperative.
-ER verbs
The imperative conjugations for nous and vous are the same as the present tense, and
the tu form of the imperative is the present tense minus the final s:
parler aller
(tu) parle (tu) va
(nous) parlons (nous) allons
(vous) parlez (vous) allez
lever *ouvrir
(tu) lve (tu) ouvre
(nous) levons (nous) ouvrons
(vous) levez (vous) ouvrez
*Verbs which are conjugated like -ER verbs (meaning that in the indicative the tu form
ends in -es), such as ouvrir and souffrir, follow the same rules as -ER verbs.
*Except for verbs conjugated like -ER verbs and the following four irregular imperative
verbs:
avoir savoir
(tu) aie (tu) sache
(nous) ayons (nous) sachons
(vous) ayez (vous) sachez
tre vouloir
(tu) sois (tu) veuille
(nous) soyons (nous) n/a
(vous) soyez (vous) veuillez
Remember that there are two kinds of imperatives, affirmative and negative, and the
word order is different for each of them.
Practice:
Test yourself on using the imperative - type each of the three imperative forms for the
following verbs.
Venir is commonly used to express the recent past - the idea that one has just done
something. This construction is formed with the conjugated venir + de + the infinitive of
the action that has just occurred.
Practice:
Fill in the blank with recent past ('venir' in present tense) of the verb indicated in parentheses.