By the end of this lesson you'll be able to say what you did at the weekend, ask someone what happened, and say what you didn't do, using the most common past tense in French.
Two parts
The passé composé is the everyday tense for finished actions. As its name suggests, it's "composed" of two parts: an auxiliary and a past participle.
- The auxiliary is usually avoir in the present. You know it from the lesson on avoir.
- The past participle is a form of the main verb.
One form of French covers several in English. J'ai parlé can mean "I spoke", "I have spoken" or "I did speak".
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| j'ai parlé | zhay par-LAY | I spoke, I have spoken |
| tu as parlé | tew ah par-LAY | you spoke (informal) |
| il a parlé / elle a parlé | ee-lah par-LAY / eh-lah par-LAY | he spoke / she spoke |
| on a parlé | oh-nah par-LAY | we spoke (casual) |
| nous avons parlé | noo-zah-vohn par-LAY | we spoke |
| vous avez parlé | voo-zah-vay par-LAY | you spoke (formal or plural) |
| ils ont parlé / elles ont parlé | eel-zohn par-LAY / el-zohn par-LAY | they spoke |
Making the participle
For regular verbs, the participle comes from the infinitive, and each verb family you've met has its own ending.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| -er → -é | ay | parler → parlé, manger → mangé |
| -ir → -i | ee | finir → fini, choisir → choisi, dormir → dormi |
| -re → -u | ew | attendre → attendu, vendre → vendu |
The participle doesn't change here, whoever did the action: j'ai parlé, elle a parlé, ils ont parlé. (One exception arrives later, in the lesson on pronouns in the passé composé.)
J'ai joué au tennis samedi.
I played tennis on Saturday.
Elle a choisi un film.
She chose a film.
Nous avons attendu Sophie.
We waited for Sophie.
Tu as dormi ?
Did you sleep?
A few new verbs will come in handy for your practice.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| acheter | ahsh-TAY | to buyParticiple: acheté. |
| oublier | oo-blee-AY | to forgetParticiple: oublié. |
| le match | luh MAHTCH | the match, the game |
Not all verbs in the lesson on common irregular verbs have participles like these. Most of them are irregular, and you'll learn them in the next lesson. Others, including partir and sortir, use être instead of avoir, and you'll see those soon too. Dormir is the easy one, with its regular dormi.
Saying what you didn't do
Ne…pas wraps around avoir, the part that's conjugated. The participle comes after pas. Because all forms of avoir start with a vowel, ne always becomes n'.
Je n'ai pas travaillé dimanche.
I didn't work on Sunday.
Ils n'ont pas regardé le match.
They didn't watch the match.
Tu n'as pas oublié les clés ?
You didn't forget the keys?
Un, une, des and du still change to de after a negative verb, as they do in the present: J'ai acheté une voiture (I bought a car) becomes Je n'ai pas acheté de voiture (I didn't buy a car).
Asking about the past
The question styles you already know all work here.
- Tu as mangé ? (Did you eat?)
- Est-ce que tu as mangé ? (Did you eat?)
- As-tu mangé ? (Did you eat?)
With inversion, the pronoun goes right after avoir, and the participle stays at the end. The first two are the ones you'll use most.
En français
- Salut, Léa ! Tu as travaillé samedi ? (Hi, Léa! Did you work on Saturday?)
- Non, j'ai joué au tennis, et j'ai regardé un film. (No, I played tennis and watched a film.)
- Et dimanche ? (And Sunday?)
- J'ai dormi ! Je n'ai pas travaillé, je n'ai pas cuisiné. (I slept! I didn't work and I didn't cook.)
- Tu as mangé au restaurant ? (Did you eat at a restaurant?)
- Oui, et j'ai acheté un gâteau. (Yes, and I bought a cake.)
What's next
Next, the lesson on irregular past participles gives you forms such as fait, pris and vu. After that, the lesson on the passé composé with être explains the verbs that don't use avoir. You could practise now by writing about a weekend using jouer, regarder and écouter.