ELONIO
Log inSign up

La marée est descendue ce matin.

La marée est descendue ce matin.
The tide went down this morning.
From Lesson 274:Agreement of the adverb tout (toute, toutes)·French

Questions & Answers about La marée est descendue ce matin.

Why do we use est instead of a for the past tense here?
The verb descendre (to go down) is one of the verbs that use être (here, est) as their helper verb in the passé composé, rather than avoir. These are mostly verbs of motion or change of state, sometimes remembered using the "Dr. & Mrs. Vandertramp" acronym.
Why is there an extra "-e" at the end of descendue?
When a verb uses être in the passé composé, its past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. The subject here is la marée (the tide), which is feminine, so we add an -e to descendu to make it descendue.
Can descendre ever take avoir instead of être?
Yes! When descendre has a direct object (meaning someone takes something down), it uses avoir. For example, j'ai descendu la valise (I took the suitcase down). But in this sentence, the tide itself went down, so there's no direct object and we use être.
Why is it ce matin instead of cette matin or cet matin?
Matin is a masculine noun starting with a consonant, so it takes the standard masculine demonstrative adjective ce (this/that). You would only use cette for feminine words, and cet for masculine words that start with a vowel or a silent 'h'.

Learn La marée est descendue ce matin and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning French →