Le Passé Composé

Le Passé Composé

When to use PC

Passé composé is used to say what you did or what you have done at a certain time in the past.

Consider the following sentences:

I ate an apple.

I have finished my homework.

To form the passé composé, we need two parts:

• part 1: conjugated form of 'avoir' in the present tense - the auxiliary verb

• part 2: past participle

Multiple Choice

What is the first part of the PC called?

• past participle

• auxiliary verb

Multiple Choice

Which verb do we conjugate into the present tense in the passé composé?

• faire

• avoir

• aller

• prendre

Recall the present tense conjugation of avoir = to have

• j'ai = I have

• tu as = you have

• il/elle a = he/she has

• nous avons = we have

• vous avez = you all have

• ils/elles ont = they have

Multiple Select

Which conjugations are from the verb avoir

• elle a

• ils font

• ils sont

• ils ont

• j'ai

Multiple Select

Which conjugations are from the verb avoir?

• vous avez

• vous faites

• elle as

• il a

• tu as

For the regular past participles:

• er verbs: drop the -er and add 'é', e.g. manger - mangé

• ir verbs: drop the -ir and add 'i', e.g. choisir - choisi

• re verbs: drop the -re and add 'u', e.g. vendre - vendu

Multiple Choice

For the -er verbs, you drop the -er and add what?

• i

• u

• e

• é

Multiple Choice

For the -ir verb past participles, you drop the ir and add what?

• i

• u

• e

• é

Multiple Choice

For the -re verb past participles, you drop the re and add what?

• e

• é

• i

• u

Of course we have some irregular past participles...at the moment, you only need to remember

• faire - fait

• e.g. J'ai fait les courses au supermarché. = I did grocery shopping at the supermarket.

Let's now put them together:

je / étudier

• use the auxiliary verb avoir = j'ai

• change étudier into the past participle = étudié

• put together = j'ai étudié (I studied)

Multiple Choice

Conjugate in the PC: je manger

• j'ai mangi

• j'ai mangé

• j'ai mange

• je mange

Multiple Choice

Conjugate in the PC: tu maigrir

• tu a maigré

• tu a maigri

• tu as maigri

• tu as maigru