Passé ComposéPassé ComposéPassé ComposéPassé Composé

AVOIRAVOIR

Basic Formation• The past tense in French is a COMPOUND

tense, meaning it has 2 parts to the verb. It is not a simple tense, like present, that only has one part to the verb (EX: je regarde). The past tense, passé composé, is composed of a conjugation of avoir (this is called the auxillary or helping verb) plus a past participle.

Auxillary Verb – Avoir STEP ONE

• Do you remember the forms of avoir?

• J’ai• Tu as• Il/elle/on a• Nous avons• Vous avez• Ils/elles ont

Past Participle – REGULAR VERBS

STEP 2• 1. For verbs ending in –er, to make a past

participle, drop the –r and add an accent aigu to the e (é)– EX: regarder regardé

2. For verbs that end in –ir, simply drop the –r.

- EX: finir fini

3. For verbs that end in –re, drop the –re and add u.

- EX: perdre perdu

EXAMPLESWe watched TV last night.

Nous avons regardé la télé hier soir.

He finished his homework.Il a fini ses devoirs.

I lost the game.J’ai perdu le match.

NEGATION• To make a past tense verb negative,

put ne…pas or any other negative expression around the verb, which in past tense is the form of AVOIR.

EX: j’ai fini

Je ai finin’ pas

Question Formation• Questions in the past tense can be

done in 3 ways:• 1. Intonation – write it as a

statement, but your voice goes up at the end to ask the question:– EX: Tu as fini tes devoirs?

Est-ce que• 2. Use est-ce que at the beginning

of your sentence:– Est-ce que tu as fini tes devoirs?

Inversion• 3. Inversion – this is most common

in speech. Invert (flip-flop) the subject and the verb (form of avoir)

• EX: fini tes devoirs (statement)

• Inversion –

astu

- fini tes devoirs?

Inversion NOTE:• In the il/elle/on forms, insert a –t-

between the form of avoir and the subject for pronunciation reasons (2 vowels together)

– EX: A-t-elle fini ses devoirs? A-t-il fini ses devoirs? A-t-on fini nos devoirs?