The passé composé
The passé composé is the most common past tense in French. It is used to talk about completed past actions. It is built with two parts:
- The present tense of a helping verb (usually avoir).
- The past participle of the main verb.
Here is a reminder of the present tense of avoir:
| Subject | avoir |
|---|---|
| j' | ai |
| tu | as |
| il / elle / on | a |
| nous | avons |
| vous | avez |
| ils / elles | ont |
Regular past participles
To form regular past participles, replace the infinitive ending:
- -er verbs: drop -er and add -é (bavarder → bavardé)
- -ir verbs: drop -ir and add -i (réussir → réussi)
- -re verbs: drop -re and add -u (attendre → attendu)
| I chatted with my neighbor yesterday. | J'ai bavardé avec mon voisin hier. |
| Did you call a friend yesterday? | Tu as téléphoné à un copain hier ? |
| She passed her exam! | Elle a réussi son examen ! |
| I waited for my friend in front of the cinema. | J'ai attendu mon copain devant le cinéma. |
Past time markers
Use markers like hier (yesterday) and avant-hier (the day before yesterday) to set the time frame.
| They met a friend the day before yesterday. | Elles ont rencontré un ami avant-hier. |
To say "last", use the adjective dernier. It goes after the time noun and agrees with it (e.g., dernière for feminine nouns like la semaine).
| You finished your work last weekend. | Vous avez fini votre travail le week-end dernier. |
| Last month, he chose a big apartment. | Le mois dernier, il a choisi un grand appartement. |
| They sold their boat last week. | Ils ont vendu leur bateau la semaine dernière. |
Connecting past actions
Join multiple actions in the passé composé using et (and).
| I prepared dinner and we ate. | J'ai préparé le dîner et nous avons mangé. |
| We chatted about a game and we sang a song. | Nous avons bavardé d'un jeu et nous avons chanté une chanson. |
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