Page 2 - Lecon 4 La France Miniature Lesson note

LE PASSE COMPOSE
Past tense

In English ,verbs conjugated in the past (passe compose) literally means have has.......ed.
While there is a simple past tense (passé simple) in French which is only used in formal
writing ,so verbs conjugated in the passé compose can also be used to mean the English
simple past tense .

For example ,the passé compose form of parler (to speak) ,[avoir] parlé, literally means
has/have spoken ,but also means ‘spoke’ .In French,the passé compose covers “I ate”, “i did
eat” and “i have eaten” –J’ ai mangé.

Usage: Passé composé is used to express that:

• Something has been completed in the past.
• Something was done a certain amount of times in the past.
• A series of something was completed in the past.

FORMATION

To conjugate a verb in the passé compose , the auxiliary verb(helping verb)is always either
avoir or être conjugated in the present indicative and then the past participle is added.

Formation of the Past Participle

verb Group Infinitive Stem Past participle

-er verbs Jouer Jou Joué (replace ‘-er’ with é ‘)

-ir verbs Finir Fin Fini(replace ‘-ir’ with ’i’)

-re verbs Repondre Repond Repondu(replace ‘-re’ with
‘u’)

Note: Past participles of irregular verbs must be memorized .

The verb conjugated with ‘avoir’ in passé compose in three forms:

Affirmative: jouer (to play)

Sub + Avoir in present +Past Participle

J’ai joué. Nous avons joué.

Tu as joué. Vous avez joué.

Il/Elle/On a joué. Ils/Elles ont joué.