Se passer is what happens to passer when you make it pronominal — and the meaning shifts in a way that English does not anticipate. The non-pronominal passer means to pass through, to drop by, to spend (time), to take an exam. The pronominal se passer means to happen, to occur, to take place — the impersonal verb of events. Que se passe-t-il ? — "What's going on?". Ça se passe bien — "It's going well." Il s'est passé quelque chose de grave — "Something serious happened."
It also has a second, equally common use: se passer de quelque chose means to do without something. Je peux me passer de café le matin — "I can do without coffee in the morning." Same verb, two distinct meanings, separated only by the preposition de. This page covers both, plus the full conjugation and the agreement subtleties of the pronominal passé composé.
Présent de l'indicatif
Regular pronominal -er paradigm. The reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nous, vous, se) precedes the verb in the affirmative.
| Person | Form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | me passe | /mə pas/ |
| tu | te passes | /tə pas/ |
| il / elle / on / ça | se passe | /sə pas/ |
| nous | nous passons | /nu pa.sɔ̃/ |
| vous | vous passez | /vu pa.se/ |
| ils / elles | se passent | /sə pas/ |
In the happen sense, se passer is overwhelmingly used in the third person, often with ça or il (impersonal): ça se passe, il se passe. The personal forms (je me passe, tu te passes) almost always belong to the se passer de construction (do without).
Qu'est-ce qui se passe ici ?
What's going on here?
Ça se passe très bien avec mon nouveau collègue.
Things are going really well with my new colleague.
Je me passe très bien de télévision depuis que j'ai déménagé.
I get along very well without television since I moved.
Other simple tenses
The verb is fully regular -er, so all tenses are predictable from the pass- stem. The reflexive pronoun stays attached.
Imparfait
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | me passais |
| tu | te passais |
| il / elle / ça | se passait |
| nous | nous passions |
| vous | vous passiez |
| ils / elles | se passaient |
Tout se passait bien jusqu'à l'arrivée du chef.
Everything was going well until the boss showed up.
Futur and conditionnel
Future stem passer-, conditional stem passer- with imparfait endings. Fully regular.
Si tu venais ce soir, ça se passerait sûrement mieux.
If you came tonight, it would surely go better.
On verra bien comment ça se passera demain.
We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
Subjonctif présent
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (que) je | me passe |
| (qu')il / elle / ça | se passe |
| (que) nous | nous passions |
| (qu')ils / elles | se passent |
Pourvu que tout se passe bien à l'aéroport.
Let's hope everything goes well at the airport.
Compound tenses: passé composé
Like every pronominal verb in French, se passer takes être as its auxiliary in compound tenses. The past participle is passé. The agreement rule, however, has a twist that catches everyone — and it depends on which meaning you're using.
Agreement in the "happen" sense
When se passer means to happen / occur, the verb is essentially pronominal (it has no equivalent non-pronominal meaning to passer alone in this sense). The participle agrees with the subject in the standard maison-d'être way.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| il / ça | s'est passé |
| elle | s'est passée |
| les choses | se sont passées |
| les événements | se sont passés |
L'entretien s'est très bien passé, je suis confiant.
The interview went really well, I'm confident.
Les choses se sont passées exactement comme prévu.
Things went exactly as planned.
Il s'est passé quelque chose de bizarre cette nuit.
Something strange happened last night.
In the impersonal il s'est passé construction, the participle stays masculine singular regardless of what follows — il is grammatically masculine and that is what the participle agrees with.
Agreement in the "do without" sense
In se passer de, the se is a true reflexive direct object — "to deprive oneself of." Here too the participle agrees with the subject (the reflexive functioning as direct object).
Elle s'est passée de dessert pour rester en forme.
She did without dessert to stay in shape.
Nous nous sommes passés de voiture pendant deux ans.
We did without a car for two years.
The two core meanings
1. To happen / to occur / to take place
This is se passer's primary use. It describes events unfolding — what is happening, what has happened, what will happen. The subject is typically ça, il (impersonal), an event noun (la réunion, le concert, l'examen), or quelque chose / quoi.
Que se passe-t-il ? J'entends des cris dans la rue.
What's going on? I hear shouting in the street.
La cérémonie se passera dans la grande salle.
The ceremony will take place in the main hall.
Comment ça s'est passé, ton rendez-vous ?
How did it go, your date?
Il se passe des choses étranges dans cette maison.
Strange things are happening in this house.
A useful pairing: se passer (happen, intransitive) vs avoir lieu (take place, more formal/scheduled). For an event with a fixed time and place, both work; se passer is the conversational default, avoir lieu the announcement register.
2. Se passer de — to do without
The construction se passer *de quelque chose means to *do without something — to forgo, to manage without. The preposition de is obligatory.
Je peux me passer de café, mais pas de thé.
I can do without coffee, but not without tea.
On ne peut pas se passer d'eau plus de trois jours.
You can't go without water for more than three days.
Tu pourrais te passer de ton téléphone une journée ?
Could you do without your phone for a day?
This use is fully personal — it conjugates across all six persons. It's a high-frequency expression in spoken French, especially in the negative (je ne peux pas m'en passer — "I can't do without it").
A bonus idiom: cela se passe de commentaire — "that needs no comment / speaks for itself."
Ce résultat se passe de commentaire.
That result speaks for itself.
Se passer vs arriver: the "happen" distinction
Both se passer and arriver can translate as "to happen" — and the choice is one of the most common confusions for learners. The difference is real but subtle.
- Se passer is about how things unfold, the manner or process of an event in progress or recently concluded. It pairs with adverbs like bien, mal, vite, normalement. Comment ça s'est passé ? — "How did it go?"
- Arriver is about occurrence — the bare fact that something happened. It often suggests something unexpected or impactful. Qu'est-ce qui t'arrive ? — "What's going on with you / what's the matter?"
Comment s'est passée la fête ? — Très bien !
How did the party go? — Really well!
Qu'est-ce qui t'est arrivé ? Tu as l'air bouleversé.
What happened to you? You look upset.
A rough rule of thumb: if you can naturally substitute se dérouler (to unfold), use se passer. If you can substitute survenir (to occur, to befall), use arriver. Both verbs overlap heavily, but se passer leans descriptive while arriver leans event-focused.
High-frequency expressions
- que se passe-t-il ? — what's happening? (slightly more formal than qu'est-ce qui se passe ?)
- qu'est-ce qui se passe ? — what's going on? (default conversational)
- ça se passe bien / mal — it's going well / badly
- comment ça s'est passé ? — how did it go?
- il se passe quelque chose — something's going on
- se passer de commentaire — to need no comment
- ne pas pouvoir se passer de — to not be able to do without
- ça ne se passera pas comme ça ! — that's not going to fly! / not on my watch! (informal, threatening)
Ça ne se passera pas comme ça, je vais porter plainte.
That's not going to fly — I'm going to file a complaint.
Ne t'inquiète pas, tout va bien se passer.
Don't worry, everything is going to go fine.
Comparison with English
Three pain points for English speakers.
English "happen" is one verb; French splits it. Se passer and arriver both translate "happen," but they specialize: se passer for manner ("how it went"), arriver for occurrence ("something happened"). Pick the one that matches the question you'd ask in English.
Pronominal verbs always take être. Even though non-pronominal passer sometimes takes avoir (when transitive: j'ai passé une heure), se passer always takes être in compound tenses: ça s'est passé, never ça a se passé.
The preposition de is non-negotiable in se passer de. English "do without (something)" sets up the same construction, but learners often forget the de under speed: je peux me passer *de café, never *je peux me passer café.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using avoir as auxiliary.
❌ Ça a se passé hier soir.
Wrong — pronominal verbs always take être.
✅ Ça s'est passé hier soir.
It happened last night.
Mistake 2: Forgetting the preposition de in se passer de.
❌ Je peux me passer mon téléphone.
Wrong — se passer requires de before the object.
✅ Je peux me passer de mon téléphone.
I can do without my phone.
Mistake 3: Confusing se passer with passer (auxiliary differs).
❌ Je me suis passé chez ma sœur hier.
Wrong — to drop by uses passer (être), not se passer.
✅ Je suis passé chez ma sœur hier.
I dropped by my sister's place yesterday.
Mistake 4: Using arriver where se passer is required (manner adverb).
❌ Comment c'est arrivé, ton entretien ?
Wrong — for asking how an event went, use se passer.
✅ Comment ça s'est passé, ton entretien ?
How did your interview go?
Mistake 5: Mixing up the impersonal il se passe and personal ça se passe.
✅ Il se passe quelque chose.
Something is happening. (impersonal il + indefinite subject after)
✅ Ça se passe bien.
It's going well. (ça refers to a known situation)
Both are correct — but they aren't interchangeable. Il se passe announces a new event ("there is an event"); ça se passe describes a known situation ("the situation is going [adverb]").
Key takeaways
Se passer is a high-frequency verb with two distinct meanings: to happen / to occur / to take place, and to do without (with the preposition de). The conjugation is regular -er across all tenses, the auxiliary in compound tenses is always être, and the participle passé agrees with the subject in the standard maison-d'être pattern.
In the happen sense, the verb lives almost exclusively in the third person (ça, il, les choses, les événements) and pairs with manner adverbs (bien, mal, vite). In the do without sense, it conjugates personally (je m'en passe) and always takes de before the object.
Distinguish se passer from arriver (both translate "happen"): se passer describes how an event unfolds; arriver states the bare fact of occurrence. The expressions que se passe-t-il ?, ça se passe bien / mal, and je peux m'en passer are everyday French — internalize them.
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