Passé Composé in French: Rules, Conjugation, and Examples

Key takeaways

• The passé composé (compound past) is formed with an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) + the past participle of the main verb. It is the tense used to describe completed actions in the past in conversational French.
• Most French verbs use avoir as the auxiliary. A specific group of verbs (mainly movement and state-change verbs) use être, and their past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject.
• The easiest way to remember the être verbs is through the acronym DR. MRS. VANDERTRAMP or by grouping them by theme: verbs of coming and going, birth and death, and entering and exiting. All reflexive verbs also use être.
• The passé composé expresses completed, specific actions. The imparfait expresses background, ongoing states, and habitual past actions. Understanding when to use each is the central challenge of French past tense, and most learners need guided conversation practice to internalize the distinction.

The passé composé is the first past tense most French learners encounter and the one used most often in spoken and written French conversation. Getting it right requires two things: knowing how to form it correctly (which auxiliary verb, which past participle) and knowing when to use it rather than the imparfait.

italki connects learners with French tutors who can help you practice past tense narration in real conversation and develop the intuition for which tense each situation calls for. This guide covers auxiliary verb choice, past participle formation, past participle agreement, the être verb group, common irregular past participles, and the passé composé vs. imparfait distinction.

Work with a French language tutor to practice narrating past events in French and develop the instinct for when passé composé is the right choice.

How to form the passé composé

The passé composé has two parts:

Subject + auxiliary (avoir or être) + past participle

Subject	Avoir auxiliary	Être auxiliary
je	j’ai	je suis
tu	tu as	tu es
il/elle/on	il/elle a	il/elle est
nous	nous avons	nous sommes
vous	vous avez	vous êtes
ils/elles	ils/elles ont	ils/elles sont

Example with avoir: parler (to speak) – j’ai parlé (I spoke) Example with être: aller (to go) – je suis allé(e) (I went)

The choice between avoir and être is the central decision when conjugating the passé composé.

Verbs that use avoir

The vast majority of French verbs use avoir as their auxiliary in the passé composé. This includes all transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object) and most intransitive verbs that are not in the être group.

Full conjugation of parler (to speak) in passé composé:

Subject	Conjugation	English
je	j’ai parlé	I spoke
tu	tu as parlé	you spoke
il/elle	il a parlé / elle a parlé	he/she spoke
nous	nous avons parlé	we spoke
vous	vous avez parlé	you (formal/plural) spoke
ils/elles	ils ont parlé / elles ont parlé	they spoke

Common avoir verbs in the passé composé:

• manger (mangé): j’ai mangé (I ate)
• finir (fini): j’ai fini (I finished)
• voir (vu): j’ai vu (I saw)
• faire (fait): j’ai fait (I did / I made)
• avoir (eu): j’ai eu (I had)
• être (été): j’ai été (I was)

Verbs that use être

A specific group of verbs uses être as the auxiliary. These are mainly intransitive verbs of movement, change of state, and position. All reflexive verbs also use être.

The DR. MRS. VANDERTRAMP verbs (a common mnemonic):

Letter	Verb	Past participle	Meaning
D	devenir	devenu	to become
R	revenir	revenu	to come back
M	monter	monté	to go up
R	rester	resté	to stay
S	sortir	sorti	to go out
V	venir	venu	to come
A	aller	allé	to go
N	naître	né	to be born
D	descendre	descendu	to go down
E	entrer	entré	to enter
R	rentrer	rentré	to return home
T	tomber	tombé	to fall
R	retourner	retourné	to return
A	arriver	arrivé	to arrive
M	mourir	mort	to die
P	partir	parti	to leave

Additional être verbs not always included in the mnemonic: passer (passé, when used without a direct object), parvenir (parvenu, to manage to / to reach), intervenir (intervenu, to intervene).

Full conjugation of aller (to go) in passé composé:

Subject	Conjugation	English
je	je suis allé(e)	I went
tu	tu es allé(e)	you went
il	il est allé	he went
elle	elle est allée	she went
nous	nous sommes allé(e)s	we went
vous	vous êtes allé(e)(s)	you went
ils	ils sont allés	they went (masc.)
elles	elles sont allées	they went (fem.)

Reflexive verbs with être: All reflexive verbs (pronominal verbs) use être: se lever (to get up), se coucher (to go to bed), se réveiller (to wake up), s’habiller (to get dressed).

• Je me suis levé(e) à sept heures. (I got up at seven o’clock.)
• Elle s’est couchée tard. (She went to bed late.)
• Ils se sont rencontrés à Paris. (They met each other in Paris.)

For a full guide to reflexive verbs and how they work, the guide to French reflexive verbs covers their formation, uses, and agreement rules in depth.

Past participle formation

Regular past participles:

• -er verbs: remove -er, add -é – parler – parlé, manger – mangé, aller – allé
• -ir verbs: remove -ir, add -i – finir – fini, partir – parti, sortir – sorti
• -re verbs: remove -re, add -u – vendre – vendu, entendre – entendu, répondre – répondu

Irregular past participles

Many of the most common French verbs have irregular past participles that must be memorized.

Infinitive	Past participle	English
avoir	eu	had
être	été	been
faire	fait	done / made
dire	dit	said
voir	vu	seen
pouvoir	pu	been able to
vouloir	voulu	wanted
boire	bu	drunk
lire	lu	read
savoir	su	known
mettre	mis	put
prendre	pris	taken
apprendre	appris	learned
comprendre	compris	understood
écrire	écrit	written
vivre	vécu	lived
venir	venu	come
tenir	tenu	held
naître	né	born
mourir	mort	died
ouvrir	ouvert	opened
offrir	offert	offered
courir	couru	run
recevoir	reçu	received
devoir	dû	had to

These irregular past participles appear constantly in everyday French. Prioritize avoir (eu), être (été), faire (fait), dire (dit), voir (vu), and prendre (pris) as these are used in almost every conversation about the past.

Past participle agreement

With avoir verbs: The past participle does NOT agree with the subject. It stays in its base form regardless of whether the subject is masculine or feminine, singular or plural.

• Il a mangé. (He ate.) No change.
• Elle a mangé. (She ate.) No change.
• Ils ont mangé. (They ate.) No change.

Exception: the past participle DOES agree when a direct object pronoun precedes the verb in the sentence.

• La tarte qu’il a mangée. (The tart that he ate.) Agreement because que (= la tarte, feminine) precedes.
• Je les ai vus. (I saw them / masc. plural.) Agreement with les.

With être verbs: The past participle ALWAYS agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Subject	Form	Example
masculine singular	base	il est parti
feminine singular	add -e	elle est partie
masculine plural	add -s	ils sont partis
feminine plural	add -es	elles sont parties
mixed group (any masc.)	add -s	ils sont partis

Practice sentence: Les filles sont arrivées en retard. (The girls arrived late.) – arrivées agrees with les filles (feminine plural).

Negative and interrogative forms

Negative: Ne…pas wraps around the auxiliary verb, not the past participle.

• Je n’ai pas mangé. (I didn’t eat.)
• Elle n’est pas venue. (She didn’t come.)
• Il ne s’est pas levé tôt. (He didn’t get up early.)

Interrogative (inversion): The subject and auxiliary invert.

• As-tu mangé ? (Did you eat?)
• Est-il parti ? (Did he leave?)
• S’est-elle réveillée ? (Did she wake up?)

In conversational French, rising intonation on a statement is often used instead of inversion: Tu as mangé ? (Did you eat?), which is simpler and common in spoken French.

Passé composé vs. imparfait

This distinction is the central challenge of French past tense. Both describe the past, but they describe different aspects of past events.

Passé composé: completed, specific, countable actions

• A specific event at a specific time: J’ai mangé à midi. (I ate at noon.)
• A sequence of events: Je suis entré, j’ai vu Marie, j’ai dit bonjour. (I entered, I saw Marie, I said hello.)
• A change of state: Soudain, il a commencé à pleuvoir. (Suddenly, it started to rain.)

Imparfait: ongoing, background, habitual, or descriptive past

• Background setting: Il faisait beau. (The weather was nice.) / Elle portait une robe rouge. (She was wearing a red dress.)
• Ongoing action interrupted by a passé composé event: Je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné. (I was sleeping when the phone rang.)
• Habitual past: Quand j’étais enfant, je jouais au football chaque jour. (When I was a child, I played soccer every day.)

Classic combined sentence: Elle lisait (imparfait, ongoing) quand Pierre est arrivé (passé composé, completed event). (She was reading when Pierre arrived.)

Common mistakes

Mistake 1: Using avoir for être verbs Incorrect: J’ai allé au cinéma. Correct: Je suis allé au cinéma. (I went to the cinema.)

Mistake 2: Forgetting past participle agreement with être Incorrect: Elle est allé. Correct: Elle est allée. (She went.): feminine singular, add -e.

Mistake 3: Placing ne…pas incorrectly Incorrect: Je n’ai mangé pas. Correct: Je n’ai pas mangé. (I didn’t eat.): ne…pas wraps the auxiliary.

Mistake 4: Using passé composé for habitual past actions Incorrect: Quand j’étais enfant, j’ai joué au foot tous les jours. Correct: Quand j’étais enfant, je jouais au foot tous les jours. (When I was a child, I played soccer every day.): habitual past = imparfait.

Practice with a tutor

The passé composé is straightforward to learn in isolation but requires real conversation practice to use correctly alongside the imparfait. A French tutor can listen to you narrate past events, correct auxiliary verb choice and past participle agreement in real time, and help you develop the natural instinct for which tense each situation demands.

italki’s 30,000+ expert tutors include native French speakers who specialize in French grammar for learners at every level. Trusted by over 10 million learners worldwide, the platform lets you find a tutor who can build lessons around the specific grammar challenges you face. Book a trial lesson and practice telling a story about your week in the passé composé.

FAQ

What is the passé composé used for in French?

The passé composé describes completed, specific past actions and events. It is the conversational past tense used for things that happened at a definite time: J’ai mangé (I ate), il est parti (he left), nous avons vu le film (we saw the film). It contrasts with the imparfait, which describes background, habitual, and ongoing past states.

Which verbs use être in the passé composé?

The être group includes verbs of movement and state change: aller (to go), venir (to come), partir (to leave), arriver (to arrive), entrer (to enter), sortir (to go out), monter (to go up), descendre (to go down), naître (to be born), mourir (to die), rester (to stay), tomber (to fall), retourner (to return), devenir (to become), revenir (to come back), and their compounds. All reflexive verbs also use être.

Why does the past participle agree with the subject in passé composé with être?

The agreement rule with être verbs reflects an older French grammatical logic in which the auxiliary verb être (to be) creates a relationship between the subject and the past participle similar to an adjective. Elle est partie (she is gone) functions grammatically like a subject-predicate description, requiring the participle to match the subject. With avoir, no such agreement exists unless a direct object precedes the verb.

What is the difference between j’ai été and j’étais?

Both come from être (to be), but in different tenses. J’ai été is the passé composé: it describes a completed instance of being somewhere or in a state: j’ai été malade la semaine dernière (I was sick last week, completed action). J’étais is the imparfait: it describes an ongoing or background state: j’étais fatigué quand il est arrivé (I was tired when he arrived, ongoing background state).

How do you say I didn’t go in French?

Je ne suis pas allé(e). The negation wraps around the auxiliary verb: ne comes before suis and pas comes after it. The past participle allé(e) comes last. If the subject is feminine, allée; if masculine, allé.