Perfect tense with avoir and être: Grammar in context
The perfect tense (le passé composé) is the main tense for talking about single, completed actions in the past, such as what someone did yesterday or last weekend. It is a compound tense built from an auxiliary verb in the present tense, avoir or être, plus a past participle, with most verbs taking avoir but a fixed set of movement verbs, such as aller, venir, entrer and sortir, plus all reflexive verbs, taking être instead, whose past participle must then agree in gender and number with the subject.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Decide the auxiliary: use avoir for most verbs; use être for the 'Dr and Mrs Vandertramp' verbs of movement or state (aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, retourner, tomber, and their compounds) and for all reflexive verbs.
- Conjugate the auxiliary in the present tense to match the subject: j'ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont, or je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont.
- Form the past participle: regular -er verbs end in -é (parler becomes parlé), regular -ir verbs end in -i (finir becomes fini), regular -re verbs end in -u (vendre becomes vendu).
- Learn the common irregular past participles: avoir becomes eu, être becomes été, faire becomes fait, prendre becomes pris, voir becomes vu, boire becomes bu, mettre becomes mis, dire becomes dit, écrire becomes écrit, ouvrir becomes ouvert, pouvoir becomes pu, vouloir becomes voulu, devoir becomes dû.
- If the auxiliary is être (and the verb is not reflexive), make the past participle agree with the subject: add -e for feminine, -s for plural, -es for feminine plural, as in elle est allée, ils sont allés, elles sont allées.
- For reflexive verbs with être, the past participle usually agrees with the reflexive pronoun when it is a direct object (elle s'est levée), but does not agree when a direct object noun follows the verb (elle s'est lavé les mains, no agreement because 'les mains' is the direct object).
- Put ne...pas around the auxiliary, not the past participle, to make the perfect tense negative: je n'ai pas mangé, elle n'est pas partie.
Worked example
Put the verb in brackets into the perfect tense, making any agreement necessary: Hier, ma soeur (aller) au parc et elle (rencontrer) ses amies. Elles (jouer) au tennis, puis elle (rentrer) à la maison et elle (se doucher).
- 'aller' with 'ma soeur' (elle) is an être verb, so use est plus the past participle allée, agreeing feminine singular: elle est allée.
- 'rencontrer' with elle takes avoir (it is not a Dr and Mrs Vandertramp verb); its regular -er past participle is rencontré, and there is no agreement with avoir: elle a rencontré.
- 'jouer' with 'elles' takes avoir; the regular -er participle is joué, with no agreement: elles ont joué.
- 'rentrer' with elle is an être verb (a compound of entrer), so elle est rentrée, agreeing feminine singular.
- 'se doucher' with elle is reflexive, so it takes être, and the reflexive pronoun here is a direct object, so the participle agrees: elle s'est douchée.
- Full passage: Hier, ma soeur est allée au parc et elle a rencontré ses amies. Elles ont joué au tennis, puis elle est rentrée à la maison et elle s'est douchée.
Practice questions
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Q1Which auxiliary verb does 'naître' take in the perfect tense?Show answer
Answer: être.
Q2Give the past participle of 'prendre'.Show answer
Answer: pris.
Q3Complete with the correct perfect-tense form: Nous ______ (manger) une pizza hier soir.Show answer
Answer: avons mangé (Nous avons mangé une pizza hier soir).
Q4Correct the agreement error: 'Elle est parti à huit heures.'Show answer
Answer: Elle est partie à huit heures, because the subject elle is feminine.
Q5Translate into French: 'They (masculine) went to the cinema.'Show answer
Answer: Ils sont allés au cinéma.
Q6Give the je form of 'se lever' in the perfect tense.Show answer
Answer: je me suis levé(e), levé for a boy and levée for a girl.
Q7Why is there no agreement in 'elle s'est lavé les mains'?Show answer
Answer: Because 'les mains' is a direct object placed after the verb, so the reflexive pronoun is acting as an indirect object and the participle does not agree.
Q8Give the past participle of 'voir'.Show answer
Answer: vu.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE French exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Translate this passage into English: Le week-end dernier, mes parents et moi sommes allés à la montagne. Nous avons fait une longue randonnée et j'ai pris beaucoup de photos. Le soir, ma mère a préparé un grand repas et nous avons mangé ensemble.
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Write approximately 40 words in French about what you did last weekend. You must mention: where you went, who you went with, one activity in the perfect tense, and your opinion of the day.
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