Question 1

Why does the first verb use être (suis monté) while the second uses avoir (ai descendu)?

Accepted Answer

Both monter and descendre are verbs of motion that normally take être in the passé composé. However, when they have a direct object (meaning you are moving something else), they switch to using avoir. Here, you went up yourself (no object, so it takes être), but you took the wiring down (le câblage is the direct object, so it takes avoir).

Question 2

Could j'ai descendu le câblage also mean I went down the wiring?

Accepted Answer

No. Because it uses the auxiliary avoir, descendre here must mean physically bringing or taking an object down. To say you climbed down the wiring itself, you would use être and a preposition, such as je suis descendu par le câblage.

Question 3

Why use sur after monté instead of just saying Je suis monté la pente?

Accepted Answer

You cannot use être with a direct object. If you wanted to treat the slope as a direct object (I climbed the slope), you would actually have to switch to avoir and say J'ai monté la pente. By using être (Je suis monté) plus the preposition sur, it means you went up onto the slope. Both convey a similar idea but require different grammatical structures.

Question 4

If the speaker is female, how would the past participles in this sentence change?

Accepted Answer

If a woman is speaking, monté becomes montée because verbs conjugated with être agree with the subject. However, descendu would not change. Verbs conjugated with avoir only agree with a preceding direct object, and here the object (le câblage) comes after the verb.

Je suis monté sur la pente et j'ai descendu le câblage.

Breakdown of Je suis monté sur la pente et j'ai descendu le câblage.

Questions & Answers about Je suis monté sur la pente et j'ai descendu le câblage.

Learn Je suis monté sur la pente et j'ai descendu le câblage and more in French