Comparative and Superlative Expressions.Forming Plural from Singular Adjectives.Changing Masculine to Singular Feminine.Learn to conjugate avoir and être, focus on learning the most common patterns and you will be able to correctly conjugate verbs in the passé composé in the majority of cases. In fact, the French regularly make mistakes when they use the passé composé. While it takes a while to get used to all these new conjugations, mistakes will rarely prevent you from being understood. If this all sounds complicated don’t worry.
Since tart comes before the verb and is female, you need to agree in number and add a “e” to mangé. Here you can say, she ate what? The tart. La tarte qu’elle a mangée était excellente. Verbs using avoir in the passé composé only need to agree with preceding direct objects.Ī simple way to know whether a verb has a preceding direct object is to ask what? after the verb. Passé composé agreement of verbs using avoir as a helping verb There is, however, a growing number of people who refuse to follow (and even teach) this rule they consider sexist. If the subject is a group of 10 women and 1 man, you are supposed to act as if the entire group was male because French grammar considers that male always wins.
#Imparfait endings plus#
Elles sont arrivé(es) ( you add a e plus a s if the subject is plural and female.).Ils sont arrivé(s) (you add a “s” is the subject is plural).Je suis arrivé(e) => you add a e if the subject if female.Verbs using être as a helping verb to form their passé composé agree in gender and number with the subject. #3 Make the verb agree in number and gender Passé composé agreement of verbs using être as a helping verb Some irregular verbs won’t match any of these patterns, if that’s the case, you need to look up the individual past participle conjugation. Prendre and other verbs in -endre => pris.Connaitre and other verbs in aitre => u.Faire, dire and other verbs in ire => it.There are also a few irregular verb patterns: The majority of French verbs are regular and forming their past participle is easy. Once you know what helping verb to use, all you need to do is add the past participle of the verb you want to conjugate. Verbs in the passé composé are formed by putting together a helping verb (être or avoir) conjugated in the present tense + a past participle. Once you know the verb you want to conjugate in the passé composé uses être, it’s time to conjugate être in the present tense Conjugation Some verbs indicating movement or a change of state.All reflexive verbs (verbs that use “se”.).Être is less common than “avoir” as an auxiliary verb but a few common French verbs use it when conjugated in the passé composé.Īn easy way to remember some of these verbs is to use the Dr and Mrs Vandertramp or Dr Mrs P Vandertramp mnemonics.Įach letter in the sentence Dr and Mrs P Vandertramp represents the beginning of a verb that uses être as a helping verb when conjugated in the passé composé. Once you know the verb you want to conjugate in the passé composé uses “avoir”, you simply need to conjugate avoir in the present tense and add the past participle (participe passé). It’s the most common helping verb and is likely to be the one you need. If you ever find yourself in the middle of a conversation wondering whether to use avoir or être to conjugate in the passé composé, choose avoir. AvoirĪvoir (to have) is the most common helping verb. The first step to conjugating a verb in the passé composé is to find out what helping verb (also called auxiliary verb) it uses: être or avoir. The past participle (participe passé) of the verb you want to conjugate.A helping verb (être or avoir) conjugated in the present tense.The passé composé is a compound tense, meaning you need two components to conjugate a verb.
#Imparfait endings how to#
How to conjugate verbs in the passé composé tense You use it to highlight the consequences of past actions and to talk about: The present perfect (j’ai fait, I have done).
The good news is that le passé composé is the most common tense and that you can already express yourself well if it’s the only French past tense you know. The bad news is that French people use several past tenses.
How to conjugate verbs in the passé composé tense When should you use the passé composé?