French Passé Composé with Être Verbs

Overview

• Verbs that use the present tense conjugation of "être" (to be) + past participle instead of "avoir" (to have) in the passé composé.
• Commonly referred to as passé composé with être verbs.
• These verbs are typically intransitive, meaning they do not take direct objects and usually involve actions such as coming, going, or staying.
• Use the mnemonic Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp to remember these verbs.

Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp Verbs

• Descendre (descendu)
• retourner (retourné)
• Mourir (mort)
• revenir (revenu)
• sortir (sorti)
• Venir (venu)
• aller (allé)
• naître (né)
• devenir (devenu)
• entrer (entré)
• rester (resté)
• tomber (tombé)
• rentrer (rentré)
• arriver (arrivé)
• monter (monté)
• partir (parti)

Steps to Conjugate

Step 1: Form the Helping Verb

• Use the present tense of "être" as the helping verb:
  • je suis, tu es, il/elle est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils/elles sont

Step 2: Form the Past Participle

• Regular past participles:
  • -er verbs → drop "-er" and add é
  • -ir verbs → drop "-ir" and add i
  • -re verbs → drop "-re" and add u
• Irregular past participles:
  • naître → né
  • mourir → mort
  • venir → venu

Step 3: Ensure Subject-Verb Agreement

• The past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject:
  • Masculine singular: no change
  • Feminine singular: add "e"
  • Masculine plural: add "s"
  • Feminine plural: add "es"
• For mixed gender groups, the masculine ending is used.
• For the pronoun "je", add "e" if the speaker is female.

Special Notes

• Aller is irregular in present/future but regular in past participle, "allé".
• Être is not included in Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp as it uses "avoir" in passé composé.

Conclusion

• Key differences with regular passé composé:
  • Use "être" instead of "avoir".
  • Ensure agreement in past participle forms.

Next Steps

• Explore other French tenses: imparfait, plus-que-parfait.

Related Topics

• Imparfait vs. Passé Composé
• Conjugating -ir and -re verbs
• French future simple