1. Le Passé Composé

2. Format Subj + Helping Verb + Past Participle Helping Verb: avoir or être avoir être (only with certain verbs!) J’ai Nous avons Je suis Nous sommes Tu as Vous avez Tu es Vous êtes Il/Elle a Ils/Elles ont Il/elle est Ils/Elles sont

3. To get the Past Participle: Take off the ending of the action verb you are using and replace with the following: - er  - éEx: parler  parlé - ir  - iEx: finir  fini - re  - uEx: perdre  perdu

4. Common Irregular Past Participles avoir  eu être  été faire  fait mettre  mis prendre  pris voir  vu

5. Now put it together! Ex: J’ai parlé. – I spoke. Ex: Tu as perdu le match. – You lost the game. Ex: Elles ont mangé. – They ate.

6. And the verbs that use être? There are 17 verbs (for now, anyway) that use être as their helping verb. They are called “Dr Mrs Vandertrampp” verbs (it’s an acronym) There are 5 irregular past participles in the list.They are underlined.

7. D evenir – to become / devenu R evenir – to come again/ revenu M onter – to go up/to get on R ester – to stay S ortir – to go out V enir – to come/ venu A ller – to go N aître – to be born/ né

8. D escendre – to go down/to get down E ntrer – to enter R entrer – to return (home) T omber – to fall R etourner –to go back A rriver – to arrive M ourir – to die/ mort P asser – to pass (by) P artir – to leave

9. Not quite done… If you use être as your helping verb because you are using a Dr Mrs Vandertrampp verb, you must have Subject/Verb agreement. Add these to the end of the past participle. masculine  ---- feminine  -e masculine plural  -s feminine plural  -es

10. Now put it together! Ex: Je suis allé au magasin.  I went to the store. (And “I” am a dude.) Ex: Elles sont sorties.  They went out. (the girls) *Vous and Nous forms will always be mpl.

11. Now: avoir or être? Step 1: Look at your verb. Is it DRMRSV? no  use avoiryes  use être Step 2: Look at your subject: Conjugate H elping V erb Step 3: Look at your verb again. Is it irregular? no  find PPyes  put irregular PP Step 4: Look at your verb again. Is it DRMRSV? no  you’re done!Yes  add agreement

12. Negation Format: Subj + ne(n’) + Helping Verb + pas + Past Participle ne and pas will hug the helping verb. use n’ if your helping verb begins with a vowel. Ex: Je n’ai pas mangé. – I didn’t eat.

13. Negation with ‘jamais’ déjà – ever, already ne…jamais – never Ex: Est-ce que tu as déjà mangé des escargots? - Have you ever eaten snails? Ex: Non, Je n’ai jamais mangé des escargots. - No, I have never eaten snails.

14. More negation quelque chose – something Ne…rien – nothing Ex: Tu as entendu quelque chose? – Did you hear something? Ex: Non, je n’ai rien entendu. – No, I heard nothing.

15. quelqu’un – someone/somebody ne…personne – no one/nobody DOES NOT FOLLOW THE SAME RULE! Ex: Je n’ai vu personne. – I saw no one. (I didn’t see anyone.) Personne will come after the past participle.