French Grammar Explained /
Past tense - The "passé composé" with "avoir"
Bonjour ! How was your weekend?
Oh, it was great. Some friend came to visit me. We went boat sightseeing on La Seine and...
That sounds great! So I suppose you're entirely prepared for today's topic: le passé composé ! You'll find this form quite familiar, let's take a look!
I was telling you about my weekend and you interrupted me to talk about grammar?
No, no. Later you will tell me all about it... in French! ;)
I have (got) | → | J'ai |
I have done | → | J'ai fait |
"Le weekend dernier... " (Last weekend...)
| "AVOIR" | PARTICIPE PASSÉ |
|---|---|---|
J' | ai | joué de la guitare. |
Tu | as | dormi chez ta grand-mère. |
Il/Elle | a | perdu son porte-monnaie. |
Nous | avons | travaillé un peu. |
Vous | avez | fait une réservation. |
Ils/Elles | ont | acheté une maison. |
Do I have to memorize all these participles now too?
Not all of them, just the irregular ones :) For the rest, just learn this:
jouer, travailler, acheter... | → | joué, travaillé, acheté... |
dormir, sortir, réussir... | → | dormi, sorti, réussi... |
rendre, perdre, vendre... | → | rendu, perdu, vendu... |
Some of the most common irregulars are:
avoir (to have) → eu
être (to be) → été
faire (to do) → fait
boire (to drink) → bu
lire (to read) → lu
prendre (to take) → pris
voir (to see) → vu
dire (to say) → dit
More for grammar geeks:
AVOIR is an auxiliary or helping verb here. It helps the participles (participe passé) construct the past tense. In some cases, we use the auxiliary ÊTRE for the passé composé, but we will get to that later.