By the end of this lesson you'll be able to say where you went, when you arrived and when you got home, and make the past participle agree with the subject.
Être as the auxiliary
You've learned to form the past with avoir in the lesson on the passé composé with avoir. A smaller group of verbs takes être instead. Use the present of être, from the lesson on être, and then the participle.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| je suis allé / allée | zhuh swee-zah-LAY | I went (man / woman) |
| tu es allé / allée | tew eh-zah-LAY | you went (informal; man / woman) |
| il est allé / elle est allée | ee-leh-tah-LAY / eh-leh-tah-LAY | he went / she went |
| nous sommes allés / allées | noo somm-zah-LAY | we went (masculine or mixed / all women) |
| vous êtes allé / allée / allés / allées | voo-zet-zah-LAY | you went (depends who you're speaking to) |
| ils sont allés / elles sont allées | eel sohn-tah-LAY / el sohn-tah-LAY | they went |
These verbs are mostly about moving from one place to another, or about a change of state.
Verbs of movement
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| aller → allé | ah-LAY | to go |
| venir → venu | vuh-NEW | to come |
| arriver → arrivé | ah-ree-VAY | to arrive |
| partir → parti | par-TEE | to leave |
| entrer → entré | ahn-TRAY | to go in, to come in |
| sortir → sorti | sor-TEE | to go out |
| monter → monté | mohn-TAY | to go up |
| descendre → descendu | day-sahn-DEW | to go down |
| rentrer → rentré | rahn-TRAY | to go home, to get back |
| retourner → retourné | ruh-toor-NAY | to go back, to return |
| revenir → revenu | ruh-vuh-NEW | to come back |
Je suis arrivé à la gare à huit heures.
I arrived at the station at eight o'clock.
Elle est sortie avec Karim.
She went out with Karim.
Nous sommes montés au parc.
We went up to the park.
Not every verb of movement belongs in this group. Voyager, for example, uses avoir: J'ai voyagé. So you do need to learn the list.
Other verbs that take être
Rester (to stay) also takes être, and so do these verbs of change.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| rester → resté | res-TAY | to stay |
| tomber → tombé | tohn-BAY | to fall |
| devenir → devenu | duh-vuh-NEW | to become |
| naître → né | nay | to be born |
| mourir → mort | mor | to die |
Tu es resté à Toulouse ?
Did you stay in Toulouse?
Léa est née en mai.
Léa was born in May.
Le chat est tombé !
The cat fell!
Agreement
Here's the big difference from avoir. With être, the participle behaves like an adjective, and it agrees with the subject, as you saw in the lesson on adjective agreement. Add -e for a feminine subject and -s for a plural one, or -es for feminine plural.
| Subject | Participle |
|---|---|
| Paul | Paul est parti. (Paul left.) |
| Marie | Marie est partie. (Marie left.) |
| Paul et Marc | Paul et Marc sont partis. (Paul and Marc left.) |
| Anne et Marie | Anne et Marie sont parties. (Anne and Marie left.) |
| Paul et Marie | Paul et Marie sont partis. (Paul and Marie left.) |
A mixed group takes the masculine plural, as other adjectives do. With je and tu, the ending depends on who's speaking or being spoken to: a woman writes je suis partie.
Vous depends on who it refers to: Vous êtes allé, monsieur ? (Did you go, sir?), Vous êtes allée, madame ? (Did you go, madam?)
For most of these verbs, the agreement is only visible in writing, because parti and partie sound the same. Mort and morte are an exception: in morte you can hear the t.
With avoir, none of this applies. Compare Elle a mangé (She ate) and Elle est allée (She went).
The negative
As with avoir, ne…pas goes around the auxiliary, and the participle follows.
Nous ne sommes pas restés.
We didn't stay.
Elles ne sont pas venues.
They didn't come.
Je ne suis pas entrée.
I didn't go in. (said by a woman)
When these verbs take avoir
Passer, sortir, monter, descendre and rentrer take avoir when they have a direct object, that is, when they're doing something to a thing. There's no agreement then, as with any other avoir verb. You can also say J'ai monté les valises (I took the suitcases up).
J'ai passé un bon week-end.
I had a good weekend.
J'ai sorti la voiture.
I took the car out.
En français
- Tu es allée à Lyon samedi ? (Did you go to Lyon on Saturday?)
- Oui, je suis partie à neuf heures, et je suis arrivée à onze heures. (Yes, I left at nine and arrived at eleven.)
- Tu es restée dimanche ? (Did you stay on Sunday?)
- Non, je suis rentrée samedi soir. (No, I came home on Saturday evening.)
- Et Marc ? (And Marc?)
- Il n'est pas venu. Il est resté à Paris. (He didn't come. He stayed in Paris.)
What's next
Next, the lesson on numbers over 100, ordinals and years gives you the numbers and dates to say when something happened. Later in this level, the lesson on reflexive verbs in the passé composé shows you another group of verbs that use être. To talk about where you went in more detail, you can look back at the lesson on places in town.