Verbs with avoir Le passé composé

The past tense is made of two verbs. In most cases, the first verb is a form of avoir (this is called the auxiliary). The second verb is the past participle of whatever verb is being used. J’ai mangé (I have eaten) Avoir Past participle of verb – ( in this case manger)

Past participles – er verbs To form the past participle for regular –er verbs, you simply take the –er off the infinitive form and add an é aimer aimé jouer joué préparer préparé chanter chanté parler parlé habiter habité

Past participles – re verbs To form the past participle for regular –re verbs, you simply take the –re off the infinitive form and add a -u vendre vendu attendre attendu perdre perdu rendre rendu Attention! Prendre has some irregular forms and this is the case for the past participle which is pris. Nous avons pris le train (we have taken the train)

Past participles – ir verbs To form the past participle for regular –ir verbs, you simply take the –r off the infinitive form. finir fini choisir choisi réfléchir réfléchi réussir réussi remplir rempli dormir dormi

Irregular past participles Some common verbs have irregular past participles: prendre pris faire fait avoir eu être été voir vu lire lu

Notes on aller There are some verbs that use être instead of avoir to form the auxiliary for the past tense. The most common one is aller: Je suis allé(e) (I went) In this case the past participle is treated like an adjective so it needs to agree in number and gender. (je suis allée for a female/and nous sommes allés for a mixed group for example)