Passer is one of the most semantically generous verbs in French. The literal meaning is to pass — to move through, by, or beyond — but the verb has stretched into dozens of metaphorical territories: dropping by a friend's place (passer chez quelqu'un), spending time (passer une heure à étudier), taking an exam (passer un examen — a notorious false friend), happening (qu'est-ce qui se passe ?), getting through to someone on the phone (je te passe ton père), going past (l'année est passée vite), and many more. Its conjugation is fully regular -er, but its grammatical behavior is anything but simple: passer is the prototypical auxiliary-switching verb. In its core intransitive sense it takes être in compound tenses; the moment it acquires a direct object, it switches to avoir.
This page covers every paradigm, the auxiliary switch in detail, the rich constellation of meanings, and the single most important warning for English speakers: passer un examen does not mean to pass an exam. It means to take one. Read that section twice.
The simple tenses
Conjugation is fully regular: passer takes the standard 1er-groupe paradigm with no orthographic adjustments anywhere.
Présent de l'indicatif
Standard -er endings on the pass- stem.
| Person | Form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | passe | /pas/ |
| tu | passes | /pas/ |
| il / elle / on | passe | /pas/ |
| nous | passons | /pa.sɔ̃/ |
| vous | passez | /pa.se/ |
| ils / elles | passent | /pas/ |
The four "silent ending" forms (1sg, 2sg, 3sg, 3pl) are all pronounced /pas/ — only the pronoun and context distinguish them.
Je passe te chercher à dix-neuf heures, ça te va ?
I'll come pick you up at seven, does that work?
Le bus passe toutes les vingt minutes en semaine.
The bus comes by every twenty minutes on weekdays.
Ils passent leur temps devant la télé, c'est désolant.
They spend all their time in front of the TV, it's depressing.
Imparfait
Pass- stem with regular imparfait endings.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | passais |
| tu | passais |
| il / elle / on | passait |
| nous | passions |
| vous | passiez |
| ils / elles | passaient |
On passait nos étés chez nos grands-parents en Bretagne.
We used to spend our summers at our grandparents' in Brittany.
Je passais toujours par cette ruelle pour rentrer du collège.
I always used to go through that little alley on my way home from school.
Passé simple (literary)
Standard 1er-groupe paradigm. Watch the diacritics: circumflex on passâmes and passâtes; grave accent on ils passèrent.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | passai |
| tu | passas |
| il / elle / on | passa |
| nous | passâmes |
| vous | passâtes |
| ils / elles | passèrent |
Les années passèrent sans qu'il revît son frère une seule fois.
The years went by without his ever seeing his brother again. (literary)
Futur simple
Stem: the full infinitive passer- with the standard futur endings.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | passerai |
| tu | passeras |
| il / elle / on | passera |
| nous | passerons |
| vous | passerez |
| ils / elles | passeront |
Je passerai te voir demain en fin d'après-midi.
I'll come by to see you tomorrow late afternoon.
Cette douleur passera vite, ne t'inquiète pas.
This pain will pass quickly, don't worry.
Conditionnel présent
Same passer- stem with imparfait endings.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | passerais |
| tu | passerais |
| il / elle / on | passerait |
| nous | passerions |
| vous | passeriez |
| ils / elles | passeraient |
Si j'avais le temps, je passerais bien chez ma grand-mère ce week-end.
If I had time, I'd love to drop by my grandmother's this weekend.
Subjonctif présent
Standard 1er-groupe pattern: identical to the present indicative everywhere except 1pl/2pl, which match the imparfait.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (que) je | passe |
| (que) tu | passes |
| (qu')il / elle / on | passe |
| (que) nous | passions |
| (que) vous | passiez |
| (qu')ils / elles | passent |
Il faut absolument que tu passes me voir avant ton départ.
You absolutely have to come see me before you leave.
J'ai peur qu'elle ne passe pas son examen du premier coup.
I'm afraid she won't pass her exam on the first try.
Impératif
Three forms, identical to the present indicative (with the standard -er drop of the final -s in the tu form).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (tu) | passe |
| (nous) | passons |
| (vous) | passez |
Passe me dire bonjour quand tu seras dans le coin !
Drop by and say hi when you're in the area!
Participles and gérondif
- Participe passé: passé (agrees with the subject when passer takes être; with a preceding direct object when it takes avoir)
- Participe présent: passant
- Gérondif: en passant
En passant devant la boulangerie, j'ai senti l'odeur du pain chaud.
Walking past the bakery, I caught the smell of fresh bread.
The phrase en passant has lexicalized as a discourse marker meaning "by the way / incidentally": je te dis ça en passant (I'm just mentioning it in passing).
The compound tenses: the auxiliary switch
This is the central grammatical fact about passer. Unlike aller, devenir, naître, which are locked into être, passer switches between auxiliaries depending on whether it has a direct object.
Intransitive passer — auxiliary être
When passer means "to go past," "to drop by," "to come over," "to be transmitted (on TV/radio)," or "to elapse / go by (of time)" — and there is no direct object — it takes être. The participle agrees with the subject.
Je suis passé chez toi mais tu n'étais pas là.
I dropped by your place but you weren't there.
Elle est passée à la télévision hier soir.
She was on TV last night.
Les années sont passées si vite.
The years have gone by so fast.
Le facteur n'est pas encore passé ce matin.
The mailman hasn't come by yet this morning.
Transitive passer — auxiliary avoir
When passer takes a direct object — passing something to someone, taking an exam, spending time, putting on (an item of clothing or makeup), running (a vacuum cleaner), etc. — it takes avoir. The participle does not agree with the subject; it agrees with a preceding direct object only.
J'ai passé deux heures à chercher mes clés ce matin.
I spent two hours looking for my keys this morning.
Elle a passé son permis trois fois avant de l'avoir.
She took her driving test three times before passing it.
Tu m'as passé le sel ? Merci.
Did you pass me the salt? Thanks.
On a passé l'aspirateur dans le salon avant les invités.
We ran the vacuum in the living room before the guests arrived.
The two passé composés side by side
| Use | Auxiliary | Example |
|---|---|---|
| drop by, go past, elapse | être | Je suis passé chez elle. |
| pass on TV/radio | être | Le film est passé hier soir. |
| spend (time) | avoir | J'ai passé une heure à étudier. |
| take (an exam) | avoir | Elle a passé son bac. |
| pass (an object) to someone | avoir | Il m'a passé le journal. |
| run (a vacuum, a mop) | avoir | J'ai passé le balai. |
Other compound tenses follow the same logic
The auxiliary switch applies to every compound: j'étais passé(e) vs j'avais passé (plus-que-parfait), je serai passé(e) vs j'aurai passé (futur antérieur), and so on.
Quand vous arriverez, j'aurai déjà passé tous mes examens.
By the time you arrive, I'll have already taken all my exams.
Si elle était passée plus tôt, on serait sortis ensemble.
If she had come by earlier, we'd have gone out together.
The false friend: passer un examen
This is the single most important warning on this page. Passer un examen does not mean to pass an exam. It means to take an exam — to sit for it. Whether you actually passed is a separate question.
To say you actually passed an exam in the English sense (succeeded), French uses réussir à un examen or, more colloquially, avoir son examen.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| passer un examen | to take / sit an exam |
| réussir à un examen / avoir son examen | to pass an exam (succeed) |
| rater / échouer à un examen / être recalé | to fail an exam |
| repasser un examen | to retake an exam |
J'ai passé mon bac la semaine dernière, j'attends les résultats.
I sat my bac last week, I'm waiting for the results.
J'ai réussi à mon examen avec mention bien !
I passed my exam with high marks!
Il a raté son permis trois fois avant de l'avoir.
He failed his driving test three times before getting it.
The trap is brutal because the surface mapping between English and French looks identical. Internalize this: in French, passer is purely the act of sitting; the outcome is expressed by a different verb.
Se passer: to happen, to do without
The pronominal se passer has two distinct meanings, both extremely high-frequency.
(1) To happen, to occur — used about events, situations, plot developments. This is the standard French way to ask "what's happening?"
Qu'est-ce qui se passe ? Tu as l'air bizarre.
What's going on? You look strange.
Tout s'est bien passé chez le médecin ?
Did everything go OK at the doctor's?
L'histoire se passe en Bretagne au début du XIXe siècle.
The story takes place in Brittany at the beginning of the 19th century.
(2) Se passer de + noun/infinitive — to do without something. A different idiom built on the same surface verb.
Je ne pourrais pas me passer de café le matin.
I couldn't go without my morning coffee.
On peut très bien se passer de voiture en ville.
You can perfectly well do without a car in the city.
The major non-obvious uses
Beyond the literal "pass through" sense, passer covers a remarkable range:
- passer un coup de fil — to make a phone call (NOT to pass a call along; that's transmettre l'appel)
- je te passe Marie — I'm handing the phone to Marie
- passer commande — to place an order
- passer outre — to disregard, to overlook
- passer pour — to be taken for, to come across as (il passe pour un génie)
- passer à autre chose — to move on (to a different topic)
- passer son temps à + infinitive — to spend one's time doing something
Je te passe ta mère.
I'll put your mother on. (handing over the phone)
Il passe son temps à se plaindre — c'est insupportable.
He spends his time complaining — it's unbearable.
J'ai passé un coup de fil à mon avocat ce matin.
I called my lawyer this morning.
Bon, on passe à autre chose ?
Right, shall we move on?
Comparison with English
The auxiliary switch. English uses to have passed for every sense; French splits it: je suis passé (dropped by, went past) versus j'ai passé (spent, took, handed over).
The exam false friend. English pass an exam presupposes success; French passer un examen is purely the act of sitting it. Reach for réussir when you mean success.
Time vs exam: prendre vs passer. English uses take for both time (it takes an hour) and exams (take an exam). French uses prendre for the first (ça prend une heure) and passer for the second.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using passer un examen to mean "pass" (succeed).
❌ J'ai passé mon examen de français — j'ai eu vingt sur vingt.
Ambiguous at best — passer just means you sat the exam. The 20/20 implies success, but the verb itself is neutral.
✅ J'ai réussi à mon examen de français avec vingt sur vingt.
I passed my French exam with a perfect score.
Mistake 2: Wrong auxiliary in compound tenses.
❌ J'ai passé chez Marie hier soir.
Wrong — passer with no direct object (here meaning 'drop by') takes être.
✅ Je suis passé chez Marie hier soir.
I stopped by Marie's last night.
❌ Je suis passé une heure à faire la queue.
Wrong — with a direct object (une heure), passer takes avoir.
✅ J'ai passé une heure à faire la queue.
I spent an hour waiting in line.
Mistake 3: Using prendre instead of passer for taking an exam.
❌ Je prends mon bac en juin.
Wrong — French uses passer for sitting an exam, not prendre.
✅ Je passe mon bac en juin.
I'm sitting my bac in June.
Mistake 4: Forgetting subject agreement on the participle when passer takes être.
❌ Marie est passé chez moi hier.
Wrong — with être as auxiliary, the participle agrees with the subject.
✅ Marie est passée chez moi hier.
Marie came by my place yesterday.
Mistake 5: Treating se passer as a reflexive of "pass" (it's not).
❌ Je me passe à côté de la piscine.
Wrong — *se passer* doesn't mean 'I pass myself.' Use a non-pronominal verb here.
✅ Je passe à côté de la piscine. / Je longe la piscine.
I'm walking past the pool.
Key takeaways
Passer's conjugation is fully regular -er, but the grammar isn't: the auxiliary switches based on transitivity. Intransitive passer (drop by, go past, elapse, appear on TV) takes être with subject agreement; transitive passer (spend time, take an exam, hand over) takes avoir.
The false-friend trap: passer un examen means to take an exam, not to pass it. Use réussir à un examen for the success sense.
The reflexive se passer covers two idioms: qu'est-ce qui se passe ? (what's happening?) and se passer de + noun/infinitive (do without). Beyond the literal sense, passer heads a huge field of idioms — passer un coup de fil, passer commande, passer pour, en passant. Treat each as a fixed expression.
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