1. Unité 2, Leçon 6a
Le Passé Composé
Rev. 11/25/12

2. Passé composé is a compound tense.
This means it has more than one part.
The passé composé has two parts:
• The AUXILIARY verb helps it to the past (also called HELPING verb)
• The PAST PARTICIPLE gives meaning to the verb
The auxiliary may change forms, the past participle does not.
Formula: AUXILIARY VERB + PAST PARTICIPLE
If you can get some of them to understand the difference between a compound and a simple tense, like the present or future, it will really help when you get to futur antérieur and conditionnel passé. I found that when I emphasized this point in the lower levels, I didn’t have to do much of anything when we got to forming the compounds in the upper levels.
You can remind them that maybe in elementary school they learned about “helping verbs” and that it’s also called an auxiliary verb (How I used to appreciate those English teachers that taught grammatical terms!).
Depending on the level where you use this, you can always throw in that all you have to do is change the tense of the auxiliary and you’ve got a lot more tenses. Some of them are pretty impressed by that!
Être as an auxiliary and reflexive verbs are later in the presentation.
To make things easier for the students to understand that the “participle does not change”, I mean that it doesn’t have forms like a conjugated verb. Past participle agreement is later on when they should have a better understanding of how to form the passé composé.

3. The first part is the auxiliary.
AVOIR is the most common auxiliary verb, so we’ll start by reviewing its forms:
j’ai
tu as
Il /elle /on a
nous avons
vous avez
ils / elles ont
As I mentioned on the previous slide, être verbs are presented later.

4. The second part is the past participle. For regular verbs,
REGULAR VERBS: -ER, -IR, -RE
The second part is the past participle.
For regular verbs,
it’s based on the infinitive.
You change the infinitive ending
to the past participle ending:
Irregular participles are later in the presentation.
One of the students is bound to point out that IR verbs only drop the R to form the past participle. Acknowledge that but tell them that it’s easier in the long run if they treat all of the verb groups the same.
er → é
ir → i
re → u
parler → parlé
finir → fini
vendre → vendu

5. AUXILIARY + PAST PARTICIPLE
PASSÉ COMPOSÉ
J’ai
visité Paris.
visité Québec.
Tu as
visité un musée.
Il/Elle/On a
Nous avons
visité Dakar.
visité Genève.
Vous avez
visité Monaco.
Ils/Elles ont

6. For example: j’ai visité means…
Translations…
This is where English speakers
have the most problems.
For example: j’ai visité
means…
1) I visited
2) I did visit
3) I was visiting
“I did speak/talk” is under questions. I thought it would add to an already confusing point by putting it here. Of course, you can mention it if you’d like.
You may have to explain what a “literal meaning” is.

7. Any form of avoir can go with any past participle.
Now put the two parts together…
Any form of avoir can go with
any past participle.
j’ai parlé
tu as fini
il a vendu
elle a écouté
on a répondu
nous avons regardé
vous avez choisi
ils ont attendu
elles ont puni
To show them that any participle can go with any form of avoir I had cards with the subjects, avoir forms and various past participles which were divided into two cards – the stem and the ending. I had the students put them together on the board (using that tacky stuff) and then would move around the participle asking them if it was OK to do so. I’d move around a few forms of avoir to different subjects and ask them in that was OK too. Then I’d mix it up by moving a participle then avoir, etc. This really seemed to help their understanding and is easy to do.

8. Nous n’avons pas étudié.
Negatives
• Negatives (ne…pas) are placed around the auxiliary verb only – the past participle goes after pas
Je n’ai pas travaillé.
Nous n’avons pas étudié.
\Marc n’a pas visité.
I found that presenting these together worked out better.
• You could add other adverbs like : souvent, rarement,. déjà, pas encore (I always presented this as one expression) and
• Or, other negatives like ne…plus., and ne…jamais. You might want to point out that since ne is used less and less in conversation, the negatives become regular adverbs: J’ai pas travaillé.
I like to use travailler because, for a long time, they think it’s “to travel”!
• If the class is talented, you could add that ne…personne is an exception to the rule because it often has a preposition:
Je n’ai parlé à personne
Je n’ai dîné avec personne
but even without a preposition :
Je n’ai invité personne.
• And if they’re advanced you could add a few multiple negatives:
ne…plus rien ne…plus personne ne…jamais personne
ne…jamais rien ne…plus jamais or ne… jamais plus

9. Put the following sentences in the past tense…
Je / passer une mauvaise journée!
Mon réveil / sonner à 7 heures.
Je / rater le bus.
Je / perdre mes devoirs.
Je / déchirer ma chemise.
Now, make them negative.

10. Put the following sentences in the past tense…
Nous / visiter.
Ils / manger.
Tu / attendre tes amis.
Vous / finir vos devoirs.
Je / perdre le match de football.
Now, make them negative.

11. Travaillez avec votre partenaire: fill in with the correct forms of the passé composé. Pay careful attention if the phrases should be positive or negative.
ex : (manger) Oui, J’ai mangé le déjeuner.
(attendre) Non, je n’ai pas attendu mes amis.
(ranger) Oui, Céline ____________ sa chambre.
(finir) Non, elle ____________ ses devoirs.
(attendre) Oui, tu ____________ à tes copains.
(répondre) Non, tu ____________ au mail de ta cousine.
(maigrir) Oui, vous ____________.
(grossir) Non, vous ____________.
(jouer) Oui, nous ____________ aux jeux vidéo.
(entendre) Non, nous ____________ le téléphone.
(choisir) Oui, elles ____________ des tee-shirts.
(acheter) Non, elles ____________ des vestes.