The passé composé

Mode

Indicatif

Level

A1

Shape

Compound

Negation

ne … pas

Verbs in Phonique

700+

In the app

Free

The passé composé is how French talks about the past. If you learn one past tense, learn this one: it covers everything finished, and in conversation it does nearly all the work.

It is a compound tense - two words, an auxiliary plus a past participle - and that structure is the thing to get right, because five other tenses are built the same way. Learn the machinery here and the plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, conditionnel passé and subjonctif passé are variations on it rather than new tenses.

How it’s formed

An auxiliary in the present tense, then the past participle:

auxiliary (avoir or être, conjugated) + past participle

Participles follow the three verb families. -er verbs end in -é, -ir verbs in -i, -re verbs in -u:

Notice all three take avoir, and notice the negative column: in a compound tense the ne … pas wraps the auxiliary only. The participle stays outside it - je n’ai pas parlé, never je n’ai parlé pas. That rule holds for every compound tense in French.

Choosing avoir or être

Most verbs take avoir. Two groups take être:

1. A short list of intransitive verbs of movement and change of state - aller, venir, partir, arriver, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber, retourner, passer and a few relatives.
2. Every reflexive verb, without exception.

Both auxiliaries in the present tense, which is all you need to build the whole tense:

The agreement

This is the part that makes être verbs different. With être, the participle agrees with the subject - like an adjective. Feminine adds -e, plural adds -s:

Je suis allé if you are male, je suis allée if you are female. The table shows all four endings because the app carries them separately - that split is real French, not a display quirk.

Reflexive verbs take être too, so they agree the same way, and the reflexive pronoun sits between the subject and the auxiliary:

Look at the negative column: je ne me suis pas levé. The ne goes before the reflexive pronoun, not before the auxiliary. Everything from ne to pas is one block.

When to use it

1. A single completed action. J’ai fini mes devoirs. - I finished my homework.
2. A sequence of events. Il est entré, il a vu Marie, il est parti. - narrative moves forward.
3. Something with a result that still matters. J’ai perdu mes clés. - and they’re still lost.
4. An action within a defined time frame. J’ai vécu à Paris pendant trois ans. - finished, bounded.

What it is not for is description or background in the past - the weather, how someone felt, what used to happen every week. That is the imparfait’s job, and choosing between the two is the single biggest decision in French past tense.

Common mistakes

Common questions

Is the passé composé the same as the English present perfect?

They look alike - an auxiliary plus a participle - but they don’t line up. French uses the passé composé for any completed past action, including ones English puts in the simple past. J’ai parlé à Marie hier is “I spoke to Marie yesterday”, not “I have spoken”. Translate by meaning, not by shape.

How do I know whether a verb takes être?

A short list of intransitive verbs of motion and change of state - aller, venir, partir, arriver, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber, retourner, passer - plus every reflexive verb. Everything else takes avoir. The list is short enough to memorise, which is the practical answer.

Do I really have to make the agreement?

In writing, yes - it’s marked in exams and noticed by readers. In speech most agreements are silent: allé, allée and allés all sound the same. The ones you can hear are participles ending in a consonant, like fait/faite or mis/mise.

Why do some verbs take avoir sometimes and être other times?

About eight verbs - sortir, monter, descendre, passer, rentrer, retourner, entrer, remonter - change meaning with the auxiliary. Je suis sorti is “I went out”; j’ai sorti la poubelle is “I took the bin out”. With avoir they take a direct object and mean something transitive.