Learn French: Il est monté à mon étage.

Il est monté à mon étage.

He went up to my floor.

Breakdown of Il est monté à mon étage.

être

to be

at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)

mon

my (mon, ma, mes)

Questions & Answers about Il est monté à mon étage.

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

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).

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.