Breakdown of Nous avons commencé par le bloc, n’est-ce pas ?
nous
we
n'est-ce pas?
right?
par
with (by means of; replace X with Y)
commencer
to start
Questions & Answers about Nous avons commencé par le bloc, n’est-ce pas ?
What tense is avons commencé?
It is the passé composé, a very common French past tense used for completed actions.
- nous avons = the present tense of avoir
- commencé = the past participle of commencer
So nous avons commencé literally means we have started / we started.
In natural English, it often translates simply as we started.
Why does French use avoir here?
In the passé composé, most verbs use avoir as the auxiliary verb. Commencer is one of them.
So:
- j’ai commencé = I started
- tu as commencé = you started
- nous avons commencé = we started
A smaller group of verbs uses être instead, but commencer is not one of those.
Why is it commencé and not commencés?