1. Le passé composé: Describing past actions Les normes: Communication 1.2 Comparisons 4.2 Le questions essentielles: What does the passé composé exrpress? What is the “formula” for passé composé (P.C)? How are the past participles formed for the 3 families of regular verbs?

2. Le passé composé: Used to describe completed actions in the past Is a compound tense Two parts = helping verb + past participle Translation: J’ai parlé = I spoke, I did speak, I have spoken

3. The helping verb: Avoir (to have) J’ai Tu as Il/elle/ on a Nous avons Vous avez Ils/elles ont

4. The past participle: For –er verbs: Infinitive – er + é Ex: Parler - parlé For –ir verbs: Infinitive – ir + i Ex: Finir - fini For –re verbs: Infinitive – re + u Ex: Vendre - vendu

5. Put it all together: Parler au passé composé J’ai parlé*** Tu as parlé Il/elle/ on a parlé *** I spoke, I did speak, I have spoken, Nous avons parlé Vous avez parlé*** Ils/elles ont parlé *** You spoke, you did speak, you have spoken

6. Finir: J’ai fini Tu as fini Il/elle/on a fini Nous avons fini*** Vous avez fini Ils/elles ont fini ***We finished, we have finished, we did finish

7. Vendre: J’ai vendu*** Tu as vendu Il/elle/ on a vendu ***I sold, did sell, have sold Nous avons vendu Vous avez vendu Ils/elles ont vendu

8. Key words: The passé composé is often used with these words: Avant hier – before yesterday Hier – yesterday Hier matin – yesterday morning Hier soir – last night L’année dernière – last year La semaine dernière – last week

9. La négation du passé composé: To make a sentence in the passé composé negative, ne … pas goes around AVOIR: Je n’ai pas parlé à Suzanne Tu n’as pas regardé la télé Il n’a pas fini ses devoirs hier soir?? He didn’t finish his homework last night?