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Passé Composé (Part 1)
Passé Composé in French has three English language equivalents.
For example, the following sentence ”J’ai mangè.” in English could mean:
1. I ate. (simple past)
2. I have eaten. (present perfect)
3. I did eat. (past emphatic)
It is a compound conjugation, meaning it is has two parts, the present tense of the auxilary verb (either avoir or être) plus the past participle of the main verb.
Let’s begin with the present tense of AVOIR and the past participle of the main verb.
| Avoir – to have |
|
|---|---|
| j’ai |
nous avons |
| tu as |
vous avez |
| il/elle/on a |
ils/elles ont |
| . |
Some past participles:
Acheter (to buy) – acheté
Manger (to eat) – mangé
Boire (to drink) – bu
Dire (to say) – dit
Écrire (to write) – écrit
Voir (to see) – vu
So the Passè Composè:
J’ai achetè.
Tu as mangè.
Il a bu.
Nous avons dit.
Vous avez écrit.
Elles ont vu.
