passe compose

All posts tagged passe compose

French Fry Day

Posted by awcarey on January 29, 2010
Posted in: French / France, French Fry Day, Language. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

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Passé Composé (Part 2)

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.

Another way to make the passé composé is with the verb être.  When the auxiliary verb is être, the past participle must agree with the subject.

Être - to be
je suis
 nous sommes
tu es
 vous êtes
il/elle/on est
 ils/elles sont
.

Some past participles:
arriver – arrivé
entrer – entré
monter – monté
passer – passé
rester – resté
aller – allé

So the Passè Composè:
Je suis arrivé.
Tu es entré.
Il est monté.  Elle est montée.
Nous sommes passés.
Vous êtes resté.
Ils sont allés.  Elles sont allées.

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French Fry Day

Posted by awcarey on January 23, 2010
Posted in: French / France, French Fry Day, Language. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

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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.

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