The Passé Composé with Avoir

In French, you must always use the helping verb in the past tense. In this case, avoir.

To form the passé composé of verbs using avoir, conjugate avoir in the present tense (j'ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont) and add the past participle of the verb expressing the action. Put the words together this way: subject + helping verb (usually avoir) + past participle.

Here are some examples of the passé composé.

• Elle a expliqué son problème. (She explained her problem.)

• Ils ont réussi. (They succeeded.)

• J'ai entendu. (I heard)

Forming the negative in the passé composé with avoir

In a negative sentence in the passé composé, ne precedes the helping verb, and the negative word (pas, rien, jamais, and so on follows it:

• Je n'ai rien préparé. (I didn't prepare anything.)

• Nous n'avons pas fini le travail. (We didn't finish the work.)

• Il n'a jamais répondu. (He never answered.)

Questions in the passé composé with avoir

To form a question in the passé composé using inversion, invert the conjugated helping verb with the subject pronoun and add a hyphen. Then place the negative around the hyphenated helping verb and subject pronoun:

• As‐tu mangé? (Did you eat?)

• N'as‐tu rien mangé? (Didn't you eat anything?)

• A‐t‐il attendu les autres? (Did he wait for the others?)

• N'a‐t‐il pas attendu? (Didn't he wait for the others?)

The Passé Composé with Être

The passé composé of 17 verbs is formed by combining the present tense of être (je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont) and then adding the past participle of the verb showing the action. Most of these verbs express motion or a change of place, state, or condition (that is, going up, going down, going in, going out, or remaining).

Verbs whose helping verb is être must show agreement of their past participles in gender (masculine or feminine — add e) and number (singular or plural — add s) with the subject noun or pronoun.

Remember the following rules when using être as a helping verb in the passé composé:

Vous can be a singular or plural subject for both masculine and feminine subjects.

Singular                                             Plural

Vous êtes entré. (You entered.)             Vous êtes entrés. (You entered.)

Vous êtes entrée. (You entered.)           Vous êtes entrées. (You entered.)

Forming the negative in the passé composé with être

In the negative, put ne before the conjugated form of être and the negative word after it:

• Il n'est pas sorti. (He didn't go out.)

• Elles ne sont pas arrivées. (They didn't arrive.)

Questions in the passé composé with être

To form a question using inversion, invert the conjugated form of être with the subject pronoun and add a hyphen. The negatives surround the hyphenated verb and pronoun:

• Sont‐ils partis? (Did they leave?)

• Ne sont‐ils pas partis? (Didn't they leave?)