Past Tense

The passé composé with avoir

In order to talk about events in the past, French uses two principal tenses: the passé composé and the imparfait. The passé composé is used to express actions or states completed in the past.

The passé composé is composed of two parts: the auxiliary verb (present tense of avoir or être) and the past participle of the main verb. Most verbs in French take avoir as the auxiliary verb in the passé composé.

Depending on which group the verb falls under will determine its past participle. Note also that some verbs are irregular and do not follow any pattern. These must be memorized.

Here are couple of verbs in the passé composé:

Infinitive form Parler (to talk) -er ending Finir (to finish)      -ir ending Perdre (to lose/ to misplace) -re ending
Avoir in the present with past participle
J’ ai parlé ai fini ai perdu
Tu as parlé as fini as perdu
Il/Elle/On a parlé a fini a perdu
Nous avons parlé avons fini avons perdu
Vous avez parlé avez fini avez perdu
Ils/Elles ont parlé ont fini ont perdu

Here are some irregular verbs’ past participle. Remember their must be memorized because they do not follow any pattern. These also would be proceeded by the present conjugation of avoir.

irregular verbs past participle

Plenty more to come so stay tuned!