The helping verb "être"
Most verbs use avoir to form the passé composé, but verbs of movement (going, arriving) or change of state (falling) use être (to be).
Conjugate être in the present tense and add the past participle:
| I fell yesterday. | Je suis tombé hier. |
Agreement with the subject
When using être in the passé composé, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. Add -e for feminine, -s for masculine plural, and -es for feminine plural.
Notice the -s on retournés for the plural subject nous:
| We went back to Paris. | Nous sommes retournés à Paris. |
Short adverbs like enfin (finally) go between the helping verb and the past participle. Here, the feminine plural subject elles requires -es:
| They finally went home. | Elles sont enfin rentrées. |
Going up and down
Monter (to go up) and descendre (to go down) also use être.
| He went up to my floor. | Il est monté à mon étage. |
| She went up in the elevator. | Elle est montée dans l'ascenseur. |
The past participle of descendre is the irregular form descendu.
| The elevator went down very fast. | L'ascenseur est descendu très vite. |
Telling a story with movement
To add action to a story, use words like soudain (suddenly) and talk about movements dehors (outside) or on the stairs (les escaliers).
| Suddenly, he went outside. | Soudain, il est allé dehors. |
| Suddenly, she fell down the stairs. | Soudain, elle est tombée dans les escaliers. |
