A small but high-frequency group of French motion verbs has the unusual property of switching auxiliary depending on transitivity. Il est monté and il a monté are both grammatical sentences, but they mean different things and follow different agreement rules. The verb is the same; what changes is whether the subject is moving themselves through space (intransitive, être) or moving an object through space (transitive, avoir).
This is one of the most frequent traps for English-speaking learners, because English uses different verbs for the two senses — "go up" vs "carry up," "go out" vs "take out" — and so doesn't preserve the parallel that French does. Monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, passer, retourner all participate in this transitivity switch. By the end of this page, you should be able to choose the right auxiliary for each verb in each construction, and apply the correct past-participle agreement.
The core rule
A small set of motion verbs — most prominently monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, passer, and retourner — uses être when intransitive and avoir when transitive (with a direct object).
This is unusual: most French verbs settle on one auxiliary or the other for life. The classic être verbs (aller, venir, arriver, partir, rester, tomber, naître, mourir) only ever take être. The vast majority of avoir verbs only ever take avoir. The transitivity-switch group is a special category in between — verbs that can be used either intransitively (where the subject is the one moving) or transitively (where the subject moves something else).
| Verb | Intransitive (être) | Transitive (avoir) |
|---|---|---|
| monter | Il est monté à l'étage. | Il a monté l'escalier. |
| descendre | Elle est descendue à la cave. | Elle a descendu la valise. |
| sortir | Nous sommes sortis hier soir. | Nous avons sorti le chien. |
| rentrer | Je suis rentré tard. | J'ai rentré la voiture au garage. |
| passer | Il est passé devant la maison. | Il a passé un examen. |
| retourner | Elle est retournée en France. | Elle a retourné la crêpe. |
The transitive use is signaled by the presence of a direct object — a noun phrase that names what is being moved or acted on. Il a monté l'escalier ("he went up the stairs" — the stairs are the direct object). Elle a descendu la valise ("she brought down the suitcase"). When that direct object is missing, the verb defaults to its intransitive sense, with être.
Monter — go up vs take up
The intransitive monter describes a person or thing moving upward — climbing stairs, ascending a slope, going to a higher floor. The auxiliary is être, and the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.
Il est monté à l'étage chercher son livre.
He went upstairs to get his book.
Elle est montée sur la table pour accrocher la guirlande.
She climbed onto the table to hang the garland. (montée = feminine singular)
Les enfants sont montés se coucher.
The children went up to bed. (montés = masculine plural)
The transitive monter describes someone bringing an object up, or going up something (with the something as direct object). The auxiliary is avoir, and past-participle agreement follows the avoir rule (only with preceding direct objects).
On a monté tous les bagages dans la chambre.
We brought up all the luggage to the room.
Il a monté l'escalier quatre à quatre, pressé d'arriver.
He took the stairs four at a time, eager to get there.
Les déménageurs ont monté le piano au troisième étage.
The movers brought the piano up to the third floor.
The English equivalent often shifts entirely between the two cases. "Go up" → intransitive monter with être; "bring up," "take up," "carry up" → transitive monter with avoir. English speakers often try to translate "carry up" with a heavy construction like porter en haut, when monter + DO does the job in one verb.
Descendre — go down vs bring down
The same logic, downward.
Elle est descendue dans la cuisine pour préparer le café.
She went down to the kitchen to make coffee.
Je suis descendu de la voiture devant la mairie.
I got out of the car in front of the town hall.
Nous sommes descendus à pied jusqu'au village.
We walked down to the village.
Il a descendu la valise tout seul, malgré son dos.
He brought the suitcase down by himself, despite his back.
Les pompiers ont descendu le chat de l'arbre.
The firefighters got the cat down from the tree.
J'ai descendu la poubelle en partant.
I took the trash down on my way out.
A practical pattern: in everyday domestic life, "I took the X down" is constantly j'ai descendu le X — and English speakers underuse this construction.
Sortir — go out vs take out
This is one of the highest-frequency switch verbs, because both senses come up daily.
The intransitive sortir means "to go out" — the subject leaves an enclosed space. Être + agreement with the subject.
Elle est sortie sans dire un mot.
She went out without saying a word.
On est sortis ensemble pendant deux ans.
We dated for two years. (sortir ensemble = to date)
Les invités sont sortis se promener dans le jardin.
The guests went out for a walk in the garden.
The transitive sortir means "to take out" — the subject brings an object out from somewhere. Avoir + standard avoir-rule agreement.
Elle a sorti son téléphone pour vérifier l'heure.
She took out her phone to check the time.
J'ai sorti le chien deux fois aujourd'hui.
I walked the dog twice today. (sortir le chien = walk the dog)
Le serveur a sorti une bouteille de la cave.
The server brought out a bottle from the cellar.
The construction sortir le chien — "walk the dog" — is a small canonical example: French uses transitive sortir where English uses an entirely different verb ("walk"). Same with sortir la poubelle ("take out the trash"), sortir les courses du sac ("take the groceries out of the bag").
Rentrer — come back home vs bring inside
Rentrer leans toward "come back home / return inside." Intransitively, the subject returns; transitively, the subject brings something inside.
Je suis rentré tard hier soir, vers minuit.
I got home late last night, around midnight.
Les enfants sont rentrés trempés de la piscine.
The kids came home soaked from the swimming pool.
Elle est rentrée chez elle après la fête.
She went home after the party.
J'ai rentré la voiture dans le garage avant la pluie.
I put the car in the garage before the rain. (transitive)
On a rentré toutes les chaises pour la nuit.
We brought all the chairs inside for the night.
Le fermier a rentré le bétail à cause de l'orage.
The farmer brought the livestock in because of the storm.
The contrast je suis rentré (I went home / I'm home) vs j'ai rentré la voiture (I put the car away) is sharp and frequent.
Passer — pass by vs spend / take
Passer has the most semantic range of the switch verbs. Intransitively, it means "to pass by," "to drop in," "to be passing through." Transitively, it carries a wide family of meanings depending on the direct object: passer un examen (take an exam — note: NOT "pass" it), passer du temps (spend time), passer un coup de fil (make a phone call), passer le sel (pass the salt).
Le train est passé à toute vitesse.
The train shot past at full speed.
Je suis passé chez toi mais tu n'étais pas là.
I dropped by your place but you weren't in.
Elle est passée par Bordeaux pour rejoindre Toulouse.
She went via Bordeaux to get to Toulouse.
J'ai passé deux heures à chercher mes clés.
I spent two hours looking for my keys.
Il a passé son examen ce matin — le résultat sera dans deux semaines.
He sat his exam this morning — the result will be in two weeks.
Tu peux me passer le sel ?
Can you pass me the salt?
Retourner — go back vs turn over
The intransitive retourner means "to return" or "to go back" — to a place left earlier. Transitively, it means "to turn over" or "to flip" — to invert an object.
Elle est retournée en France après dix ans à Berlin.
She returned to France after ten years in Berlin.
On retournera à ce restaurant, c'était excellent.
We'll go back to that restaurant — it was excellent.
Il est retourné chercher ses clés au bureau.
He went back to fetch his keys from the office.
Elle a retourné la crêpe avec un coup de poignet bien placé.
She flipped the crêpe with a well-aimed flick of the wrist.
J'ai retourné la lettre pour voir l'adresse de l'expéditeur.
I turned the letter over to see the sender's address.
Le vent a retourné mon parapluie.
The wind turned my umbrella inside out.
The two meanings are quite distinct semantically, so confusion is rare in practice — but the transitive sense ("turn over / flip") is sometimes overlooked by learners who only know retourner as "go back."
Past participle agreement: the two regimes
This is where the two auxiliaries enforce different agreement rules.
With être (intransitive use): agreement with the subject
When the verb is intransitive and takes être, the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number. This is the standard être-verb rule.
Elle est sortie hier soir.
She went out last night. (sortie — feminine singular agreement with elle)
Les enfants sont rentrés à pied.
The children walked home. (rentrés — masculine plural agreement)
Mes sœurs sont montées au sommet.
My sisters climbed to the summit. (montées — feminine plural)
This is exactly parallel to the agreement of aller, venir, partir, etc. with their subjects.
With avoir (transitive use): agreement with preceding direct object
When the verb is transitive and takes avoir, the past participle does not agree with the subject. Instead, it agrees with a preceding direct object — that is, a direct object that appears before the verb in the sentence (typically as a relative pronoun que or as an object pronoun le, la, les).
If the direct object follows the verb (the normal word order), there's no agreement.
Il a monté les valises au premier étage.
He brought the suitcases up to the first floor. (no agreement — DO follows the verb)
Les valises qu'il a montées étaient lourdes.
The suitcases he brought up were heavy. (montées agrees with les valises — preceding via que)
Tu as sorti le chien ?
Did you walk the dog? (no agreement)
Le chien, je l'ai sorti à six heures.
The dog — I walked him at six. (no agreement — chien is masculine)
La poubelle ? Je l'ai déjà descendue.
The trash? I already took it down. (descendue — feminine agreement with l' = la poubelle, preceding)
Quelles photos as-tu sorties pour l'album ?
Which photos did you take out for the album? (sorties — feminine plural agrees with photos via que)
The agreement rule is purely positional: the direct object must come before the past participle in the sentence. If it stays in its normal post-verb slot, no agreement happens. See Agreement with avoir for the full treatment.
A side-by-side example
Notice how the auxiliary, the agreement, and the meaning all shift between intransitive and transitive uses of the same verb:
Elle est descendue à la cave.
She went down to the cellar. (être + subject agreement: descendue)
Elle a descendu la valise à la cave.
She brought the suitcase down to the cellar. (avoir, no agreement — DO follows)
La valise qu'elle a descendue à la cave.
The suitcase she brought down to the cellar. (avoir + preceding-DO agreement: descendue)
Three sentences, three different grammatical configurations, all of them correct.
Other motion verbs that don't switch
It's important to know that not all motion verbs participate in this switch. Many motion verbs are firmly avoir-only, even though they describe motion.
| Always avoir | Always être (intransitive) |
|---|---|
| marcher (walk) | aller (go) |
| courir (run) | venir (come) |
| sauter (jump) | arriver (arrive) |
| nager (swim) | partir (leave) |
| danser (dance) | rester (stay) |
| voyager (travel) | tomber (fall) |
| conduire (drive) | devenir (become) |
| bouger (move) | naître (be born) |
| glisser (slide) | mourir (die) |
Il a marché toute la journée.
He walked all day.
Nous avons couru un marathon le mois dernier.
We ran a marathon last month.
Elle a nagé jusqu'à la bouée.
She swam to the buoy.
Ils ont voyagé pendant six mois en Asie.
They traveled for six months in Asia.
The auxiliary distinction here isn't really about transitivity (most of these are intransitive) — it's lexical, fixed by the verb. Aller takes être because it's a maison-d'être verb; marcher takes avoir because it isn't, even though both verbs describe self-locomotion. There's no deep semantic logic — you memorize the closed list.
The transitivity switch only applies to the specific group: monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, passer, retourner. Lesser-known members of the same family include demeurer in some uses and paraître in literary contexts, but these are edge cases for advanced study.
A few extra members of the switch family
Beyond the six main verbs, a smaller set behaves similarly:
- Tomber — usually être, but transitive use is rare: tomber la chemise ("take off one's shirt" — informal, archaic) takes avoir, but you'll only see this in old novels.
- Demeurer — generally être in literary use (= "remain"), avoir when transitive ("to live somewhere" in some dialectal uses).
- Apparaître / disparaître — primarily être in modern use; older texts sometimes show avoir.
For practical purposes at B1, the six core verbs (monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, passer, retourner) cover the great majority of cases.
Source-language note: English uses different verbs
English handles the transitivity issue by lexicalizing it — using different verbs for the two senses. To go up vs to bring up; to go out vs to take out; to go back vs to turn over. The verbs share an etymology in some cases ("go up" / "bring up") and not in others ("go out" / "take out"), but they're distinct lexical items.
French keeps the same verb and lets the transitivity (presence or absence of a direct object) and the auxiliary signal which sense is meant. This is a more economical system, but it requires the speaker to actively track whether they have a direct object in their sentence. The cognitive load for English speakers is real: the same word monté needs to mean two different things depending on what's around it.
A useful exercise: every time you produce a sentence with monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, passer, or retourner in the passé composé, pause and check — is there a direct object? If yes, avoir (and possibly preceding-DO agreement). If no, être (with subject agreement). The rule is mechanical once you train the reflex.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using être with a transitive motion verb because it's a "motion verb."
❌ Il est monté l'escalier.
Wrong: with a direct object (l'escalier), monter takes avoir.
✅ Il a monté l'escalier.
He went up the stairs.
Mistake 2: Using avoir with intransitive motion (no direct object).
❌ Elle a montée à l'étage.
Wrong: no direct object means être, with subject agreement: elle est montée.
✅ Elle est montée à l'étage.
She went upstairs.
Mistake 3: Forgetting subject agreement with être + intransitive motion.
❌ Elle est sorti vers six heures.
Wrong: feminine singular subject requires sortie, with -e for agreement.
✅ Elle est sortie vers six heures.
She went out around six.
Mistake 4: Adding subject agreement to avoir + transitive motion.
❌ Elle a sortie son téléphone.
Wrong: with avoir, the past participle does not agree with the subject. The DO (son téléphone) follows the verb, so no agreement applies.
✅ Elle a sorti son téléphone.
She took out her phone.
Mistake 5: Forgetting preceding-DO agreement with avoir.
❌ Les valises qu'il a monté étaient lourdes.
Wrong: les valises is a preceding direct object (via que). The participle must agree: montées.
✅ Les valises qu'il a montées étaient lourdes.
The suitcases he brought up were heavy.
Mistake 6: Translating passer un examen as "pass an exam."
❌ Il a passé son examen, donc il est admis.
Mismatched: 'passer un examen' means to TAKE the exam, not to pass (= succeed at) it.
✅ Il a passé son examen et il l'a réussi.
He took his exam and passed it.
Key takeaways
- Six common motion verbs — monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, passer, retourner — switch auxiliary based on transitivity.
- Intransitive (no direct object, subject moves itself) → être
- subject agreement: elle est sortie, ils sont montés.
- Transitive (with a direct object, subject moves something) → avoir
- preceding-DO agreement only: elle a sorti son téléphone, les valises qu'il a montées.
- The same verb often translates with different English verbs in the two cases: sortir = "go out" (intrans) / "take out" (trans); monter = "go up" / "bring up"; descendre = "go down" / "bring down."
- The agreement rules differ: with être, agreement is with the subject always; with avoir, agreement is with a preceding direct object only — and never with a following one.
- Passer un examen is a false friend: it means "take an exam," not "pass" it. Réussir is the verb for succeeding.
- Many other motion verbs (marcher, courir, nager, voyager, conduire) take avoir consistently and are not part of the switching group.
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