French Language > Verbs

Compound Past
The Ins & Outs of the Passé composé

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 I. Les Formes en Présence

With the three kinds of verbs (ordinary verbs, house-of-being verbs, pronominal verbs), the results are:

Most Verbs	House-of-Being Verbs	Pronominal Verbs
j’ai éternué (I sneezed)	je suis resté(e) (I stayed)	je me suis retourné(e) (I turned around)
tu as éternué	tu es resté(e)	tu t’es retourné(e)
elle a éternué	elle est restée	elle s’est retournée
nous avons éternué	nous sommes resté(e)s	nous nous sommes retourné(e)s
vous avez éternué	vous êtes resté(e)(s)	vous vous êtes retourné(e)(s)
elles ont éternué	elles sont restées	elles se sont retournées

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II. What Does the Passé Composé Mean?

Composé = “composite” = made up of more than one word (usually two, the auxiliary and the past participle).

Usually a verb in the passé composé will be translated as an English simple past:

• Elle a éternué = “She sneezed.”

It is the equivalent, or nearly, of the passé simple, which is translated the same way:

• Elle éternua = “She sneezed.”

However, in a few cases it will be better translated as an English Present Perfect:

• Elle a éternué = “She has sneezed.”

—which will never happen with the passé simple.

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III. The Other Compound Tenses

Tense	Most Verbs	House-of-Being Verbs	Pronominal Verbs
Plus-que-parfait (Pluperfect)	elle avait éternué (she had sneezed)	elle était restée (she had stayed)	elle s’était retournée (she had turned around)
Futur antérieur (Future Perfect)	elle aura éternué (she will have sneezed)	elle sera restée (she will have stayed)	elle se sera retournée (she will have turned around)
Passé antérieur (≈Pluperfect)	elle eut éternué (she had sneezed)	elle fut restée (she had stayed)	elle se fut retournée (She had turned around)
Passé du conditionnel (Past Conditional)	elle aurait éternué (she would have sneezed)	elle serait restée (she would have stayed)	elle se serait retournée (She would have turned around)
Passé du subjonctif (Past Subjunctive)	qu’elle ait éternué 1	qu’elle soit restée 1	qu’elle se soit retournée 1
Imparfait du subjonctif (Imperfect Subjunctive)	qu’elle eût éternué 1	qu’elle fût restée 1	qu’elle se fût retournée 1

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IV. A Past Participle Is Not an Independent Verb!

English-speaking learners of French may have trouble with the passé composé due to the fact that, for many English verbs (the so-called “weak” verbs), the simple past and the past participle are identical in form. Though they resemble each other, however, the simple past (or preterite) is a personal or conjugated or independent verb form, whereas the past participle cannot function as a complete verb form on its own.

• Simple Past: I followed¹.
• Present Perfect: I have followed².

The fact that “followed¹” and “followed²” are different becomes clear when we look at a strong verb:

• Simple Past: I sang¹.
• Present Perfect: I have sung².

You would never (in standard English) substitute the one for the other. You would not say:

• *I sung. (See, in the glossary, asterisk.)
• *I spoken.
• *I begun.

Similarly, you would not say:

• *I (having) followed².

Likewise (and a fortiori), in French you must not use the past participle as if it were a personal verb form.

• *je suivi
• *je parlé
• *je vendu, etc.

The correct, complete past verb forms are

• j’ai suivi
• j’ai parlé
• j’ai vendu, etc.

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V. Which Auxiliary, Avoir or Être?

Most verbs form compound tenses with the auxiliary avoir. Consequently, you don’t need to learn which verbs use avoir, but rather which verbs don’t use avoir (B and C below).

A. Use Avoir with Most Verbs

That is,

Transitive examples:

• Il a giflé l’enfant. (He slapped the child.)
• Il a raconté une anecdote. (He told an anecdote.)
• Il a fait une expérience. (He performed an experiment.)

Intransitive examples:

• Il a assisté à la messe. (He was present at the mass.)
• Il a couru. (He ran.)

A transitive verb can of course be put into the passive voice (la voix passive), in which case être comes into play (just as it does in English); the past participle agrees with the subject.

Voix active	Voix passive	Active Voice	Passive Voice
Les scientifiques font des expériences.	Les expériences sont faites par des scientifiques.	“Scientists perform experiments.”	“Experiments are performed by scientists.”
Ce scientifique fera une expérience.	L’expérience sera faite par ce scientifique.	“This scientist will perform an experiment.”	“The experiment will be performed by this scientist.”
Ce scientifique a fait l’expérience.	L’expérience a été faite par ce scientifique.	“This scientist performed the experiment.”	“The experiment was performed by this scientist.”

B. Use Être with House-of-Being Verbs

• Il est né à Montréal. (He was born in Montreal.)
• Il est mort à Chicoutimi. (He died in Chicoutimi.)
• Sa femme est restée veuve. (His wife remained a widow.)
• Mais elle est devenue riche. (But she became rich.)
• Elle est partie du Canada. (She left Canada.)
• Elle est venue aux Etats-Unis. (She came to the US.)

C. Use Être with Pronominal Verbs

• Elle s’est regardée dans la glace. (She looked at herself in the mirror.)
• Nous nous sommes promenés dans le parc. (We strolled in the park.)
• Vous vous êtes trompés. (You made a mistake = You were mistaken.)
• Notre bateau s’est renversé. (Our boat capsized.)

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VI. Facing Up to the Difficult Choice

You may think that having to choose between avoir and être for the auxiliary verb is a pain, but far more difficult is the following. One of the most vexing issues for an English-speaker learning French is having to decide on the aspect of any verb in the past, something English often doesn’t require. (Correspondingly, French-speakers learning English have to worry about the aspect of verbs in the present, which French normally doesn’t require. See One Tense Does the Work of Three.) Ever and again one is faced with the unavoidable question: Imperfect or Compound Past?

In my younger days I found the following rule helpful:

(See, once again [you have already looked at it]: Functions of the passé composé.)

Regarding number 1: In a story or other account of something sequential, some things have to be complete finished before other things can happen. Consider the following:

Story	What Must Be Done (With)
I looked in the refrigerator.	(You have to finish looking before you can…)
I decided to go to the store.	(You have to finish deciding before you can…)
I drove the car to Walmart.	(You have to finish going to the store, before you can…)
Once there, I got out of the car…	(You have to finish getting out of the car before you can…)
…and, slipping on the pavement, I fell and hit my head.	(You have to finish falling before you can…)
Unable to get up, I cried out: “Help!”	(You have to finish crying out before…)
Etc.	—–

For all of the above, French requires either the passé composé or the passé simple:

English	French
I looked in the refrigerator.	J’ai regardé (Je regardai) dans le frigo.
I decided to go to the store.	J’ai décidé (Je décidai) d’aller au supermarché.
I drove the car to Walmart.	J’ai pris (Je pris) la voiture pour aller au Prisunic.
Once there, I got out of the car…	Une fois arrivé(e) je suis descendu(e) (je descendis) de la voiture et,
…et, slipping on the pavement, I fell and hit my head.	glissant sur le trottoir, je suis tombé(e) (je tombai) à la renverse.
Unable to get up, I cried out: “Help!”	Ne pouvant pas me relever, j’ai crié (je criai): « Au secours! »
Etc.	—–

Regarding number 2 I will (perhaps) say more later.

If the above two questions didn’t settle the issue for me, I would turn to the following one:

The above covers all the possible uses of the imperfect: stable elements in the past, whether physical or mental; ongoing or interrupted (but not finished!) activity; habitual or repeated actions. (See, once again: Functions of the Imperfect.)

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VII. Just What Are You Agreeing With?

Does the past participle, in a compound tense verb, ever agree with anything else (a noun or pronoun) in the sentence?

Yes! Sometimes always; but other times only sometimes.

First, the Always cases:

A. In House-of-Being Verbs, the Past Participle Agrees with the Subject

As was in the note at the end of V.B above, a House-of-Being verb in a compound tense is somewhat like a copulative verb with a following (predicate) adjective (but the tense is quite different):

• Linking Verb & Predicate Adjective: Elle est fatiguée. (She is tired.)
• H-of-B Verb in the Passé composé: Elle est revenue. (She / returned / has returned.)

Hence, it seemed good to the powers that guide the French linguistic collective unconsciousness to use être for conjugating compound tenses for this kind of verb.

Now for the Sometimes cases (B and C):

B. In Ordinary Verbs (Non-H-of-B, Non-Pronominal), the Past Participle Agrees with a Preceding Direct Object

This is a strange, and some will say unfortunate, rule that was settled upon by grammarians of the Ancien Régime (17th-18th centuries).

Normally the past participle of an ordinary verb in a compound tense doesn’t agree with anything (that is, it stays in its base form [= the masculine singular form]). The subject, certainly, has no influence on the form of the past participle:

• Le roi a giflé la comtesse. (The king slapped the countess.)
• La reine a giflé la comtesse. (The queen slapped the countess.)
• Les courtisans ont giflé la comtesse. (The [common-gender] courtiers slapped the countess.)
• Les courtisanes ont giflé la comtesse. (The [female] court-members slapped the countess.)

But:

When does the direct object precede the verb? Essentially in three situations, for which examples follow.

Base Statement: Le roi a giflé les comtesses. (The king slapped the countesses.)

1. Direct Object Personal Pronoun (le, la, les): Il les a giflées. (He slapped them.)
2. Question with the Interrogative Adjective: Quelles comtesses a-t-il giflées? (Which countesses did he slap [has he slapped]?)
   Question with the Interrogative Pronoun: Lesquelles a-t-il giflées? (Which ones did he slap?)
3. Direct Object Relative Pronoun: Vous ne verrez pas aujourd’hui à la cour les comtesses que le roi a giflées. ² (You will not see in court today the countesses that the king slapped.)

C. Pronominal Verbs Are Like Ordinary Verbs: the Past Participle Agrees with a Preceding Direct Object

So for instance, in the case:

• Elle s’est observée dans la glace. (She observed herself in the mirror.)

—the past participle observée is agreeing with the direct object (reflexive) pronoun se, which itself has the same gender and number (feminine singular) as the subject. Strictly speaking, although the past participle seems to be agreeing with the subject, it is doing so only indirectly; directly, it agrees with the direct object.

On occasion, the reflexive pronoun will be an indirect, rather than a direct, object. In such cases, the past participle does not change its form:

• Elle s’est acheté une nouvelle robe. (She bought [for herself] a new gown.)
• Elle s’est demandé pourquoi. (She wondered [= asked / “to” / of / herself] why.)
• Elles se sont parlé. (They spoke to each other [OR: to themselves].)
• Elles se sont téléphoné. (They telephoned [to] each other [OR {to} themselves].)
• Elles se sont écrit des lettres. (They wrote letters to each other [OR: to themselves].)

Fortunately, for the great majority of pronominal verbs, the reflexive pronoun is a direct object.

• Elle s’est trompée d’adresse. (She was mistaken [= fooled herself] regarding the address.)
• Elle s’est levée de bonne heure. (She got up [= raised herself] early.)
• Ils se sont rencontrés dans la rue. (They met [each other] in the street.)
• Elle s’est servie du dictionnaire. (She used the dictionary = She served herself with the dictionary.)
• Elle s’est habillée chaudement. (She dressed [herself] warmly.)
• Elle s’est mise à pleurer. (She began to cry = She set herself to crying.)

Interestingly, with the fourth category of pronominal verbs, those with Idiomatic or Subjective Meaning, the reflexive pronoun is always considered a direct object. What’s the reason? Well, if the construction can’t be translated literally and make sense, then the case of the reflexive pronoun is up for grabs, and might as well be direct object as not. Right?

Some examples:

• Elle s’est passée de pain ce jour-là. (She did without bread that day.)
• En travaillant elle s’est souvenue de son rêve. (While she was working she remembered her dream.)
• Elle s’est échappée de prison. (She escaped from prison.)
• Ils s’en sont allés en chantant la Marseillaise. (They left whilst singing the Marseillaise.)

1. A verb in the subjunctive cannot be translated in isolation.[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. The relative pronoun is considered to have the same number and gender (and person!) as its antecedent. “comtesses” is feminine plural; consequently, “que” is feminine plural as well; and “giflées” is agreeing with “que.”[↩]
3. That is, blaming Latin for this rule is as ridiculous as blaming Canada. See the Parker & Stone song on the subject.[↩]
4. The English language quite independently came up with the same construction, leading to the Present Perfect tense that we know and use abundantly today.[↩]
5. The Classical participle “vénditum” was replaced by “*vendútum” > French “vendu.”[↩]

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