Question 1

Why does this sentence use est instead of a for the past tense?

Accepted Answer

This is the past tense (passé composé). Most verbs use avoir (to have) as their helper verb, but monter is part of a special group of verbs showing motion or a change of state. These use être (to be). So, instead of saying 'he has gone up', French literally says 'he is gone up' (il est monté).

Question 2

If the subject was 'She' (Elle), would monté change?

Accepted Answer

Yes! When you use être as the helper verb in the past tense, the main action word (the past participle) has to match the subject's gender and number. Since Il is masculine singular, monté has no extra endings. If it were Elle (she), you would add an e to make it feminine: Elle est montée.

Question 3

Why do we use à here instead of sur for 'my floor'?

Accepted Answer

In English, we often say someone is 'on' a floor, but when talking about movement towards it, we say 'up to'. Here, à simply means 'to'. The phrase à mon étage points out his destination: he went up 'to' my floor.

Question 4

Does monter mean 'to climb' or 'to go up'?

Accepted Answer

It can mean both! Monter generally means to move upward. Depending on the context, it translates to 'go up', 'come up', 'climb', or even 'get in' (like into a train). Here, 'went up' is the most natural translation for moving between floors in a building.

Question 5

Why is it mon étage and not ma étage?

Accepted Answer

The word étage (floor/story) is masculine, so it uses the masculine word for 'my', which is mon. Even though it ends in 'e', it isn't feminine! Also, as a helpful tip for other words: even if it were feminine, we would still use mon because étage starts with a vowel sound, which makes it easier to pronounce without a pause.

Il est monté à mon étage.

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