J’ai vu le chat noir.

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Breakdown of J’ai vu le chat noir.

• le chat: the cat
• noir: black
• avoir vu: to have seen

Questions & Answers about J’ai vu le chat noir.

Why do we use ai vu instead of ai voir?

In French, when forming the passé composé for most verbs, you combine the auxiliary verb avoir (conjugated) with the past participle of the main verb. The past participle of voir (to see) is vu, so you get ai vu for "I saw."

Why do we say le chat instead of un chat?

Using le means we’re talking about a specific cat—either the speaker and listener already know which cat it is, or there’s enough context to identify it. Un would mean "a cat" in a more general sense.

Why is noir placed after chat?

In French, most adjectives follow the noun. Colors typically come after the noun they describe, so you say le chat noir ("the black cat") rather than le noir chat.

Does J’ai vu always mean "I saw" in a completed sense?

Yes. The passé composé indicates an action that happened and was completed in the past. It’s equivalent to the simple past in English ("I saw") or sometimes the present perfect ("I have seen"), depending on context.