If you have ever wanted to tell someone in French what you did yesterday, where you went last weekend, or how a story ended, you need the passé composé. It is the everyday past tense of spoken and written French, the one you will reach for in conversations, emails, and stories far more often than any other. The name literally means “compound past,” and that label is a small gift: it tells you the tense is built from two pieces rather than a single conjugated word. Once you understand those two pieces and how they fit together, a huge portion of French past-tense communication suddenly opens up.
This guide walks you through everything an English speaker needs to use the passé composé with confidence: how to build it with avoir and être, how to form past participles, when to make those participles agree, the irregular forms worth memorizing, and how the tense compares to its frequent companion, the imparfait. Plenty of French examples with translations are included so you can see each rule in action.
What Is the Passé Composé?
The passé composé describes actions that are finished. Think of a single, completed event with a clear beginning and end: a decision made, a place visited, a meal eaten. Depending on context, it translates into English as either the simple past (“I ate”) or the present perfect (“I have eaten”).
- J’ai mangé une crêpe. — I ate a crepe. / I have eaten a crepe.
- Nous avons visité Lyon. — We visited Lyon.
- Elle est partie ce matin. — She left this morning.
Notice that every example is built from two words after the subject. That two-part structure is the heart of the tense.
How the Passé Composé Is Formed
The formula never changes:
subject + auxiliary verb (in the present tense) + past participle
The auxiliary, sometimes called the “helping verb,” is either avoir (to have) or être (to be), conjugated in the present. The past participle is the part of the main verb that carries its meaning. Master those two ingredients separately and you can assemble the tense for almost any verb.
Building Past Participles
French verbs fall into three groups based on their endings, and each group has a predictable past-participle pattern.
| Verb ending | Rule | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -er | Replace -er with -é | parler → parlé, manger → mangé, aimer → aimé |
| -ir | Replace -ir with -i | finir → fini, choisir → choisi, dormir → dormi |
| -re | Replace -re with -u | vendre → vendu, attendre → attendu, rendre → rendu |
These three patterns cover the vast majority of regular verbs. The irregular ones are a smaller, learnable set that we will tackle further down.
The Auxiliary Avoir: The Default Choice
Most French verbs form the passé composé with avoir. To use it, conjugate avoir in the present and attach the past participle. Here is the full pattern with manger (to eat):
| Subject | Avoir + participle | English |
|---|---|---|
| j’ | ai mangé | I ate |
| tu | as mangé | you ate |
| il / elle / on | a mangé | he / she / one ate |
| nous | avons mangé | we ate |
| vous | avez mangé | you ate |
| ils / elles | ont mangé | they ate |
Swap in any avoir verb and the structure stays identical: J’ai fini mon travail (I finished my work), Tu as vendu ta voiture (You sold your car), Ils ont choisi un cadeau (They chose a gift).
The Auxiliary Être: A Special Group
A specific set of verbs uses être instead of avoir. These fall into two families.
Verbs of Movement and State Change
Many verbs describing coming, going, and transitions of being take être. A popular way to remember them is the acronym DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP, but it is just as effective to learn them in opposite pairs:
| Infinitive | Past participle | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| aller | allé | to go |
| venir | venu | to come |
| arriver | arrivé | to arrive |
| partir | parti | to leave |
| entrer | entré | to enter |
| sortir | sorti | to go out |
| monter | monté | to go up |
| descendre | descendu | to go down |
| naître | né | to be born |
| mourir | mort | to die |
| rester | resté | to stay |
| retourner | retourné | to return |
| tomber | tombé | to fall |
| devenir | devenu | to become |
Their compounds (such as rentrer, revenir, and repartir) follow the same rule. Examples: Je suis allé au marché (I went to the market), Elle est devenue médecin (She became a doctor).
Reflexive Verbs
Every reflexive (pronominal) verb forms the passé composé with être. The reflexive pronoun sits before the auxiliary:
- Je me suis levé tôt. — I got up early.
- Nous nous sommes promenés au parc. — We took a walk in the park.
- Elles se sont dépêchées. — They hurried.
Agreement Rules You Cannot Skip
This is where many learners stumble, so let us make it clear. Agreement depends on the auxiliary.
With Être
When the auxiliary is être, the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number, much like an adjective. Add -e for feminine, -s for plural, and -es for feminine plural:
| Subject | Form of “venir” | English |
|---|---|---|
| Il | est venu | he came |
| Elle | est venue | she came |
| Ils | sont venus | they came (m.) |
| Elles | sont venues | they came (f.) |
With Avoir
With avoir, the participle normally does not agree with the subject. The one exception: it agrees with a direct object when that object comes before the verb. Compare:
- J’ai acheté une robe. — I bought a dress. (No agreement; the object follows the verb.)
- La robe que j’ai achetée est rouge. — The dress that I bought is red. (Agreement, because la robe comes first.)
For reflexive verbs, the participle usually agrees with the reflexive pronoun when it functions as a direct object, which is why we wrote nous nous sommes promenés above.
Irregular Past Participles Worth Memorizing
A core group of high-frequency verbs has unpredictable participles. These appear constantly, so the time spent memorizing them pays off quickly:
| Infinitive | Past participle | Example |
|---|---|---|
| avoir (to have) | eu | J’ai eu peur. — I was afraid. |
| être (to be) | été | Il a été malade. — He was sick. |
| faire (to do/make) | fait | Nous avons fait un gâteau. — We made a cake. |
| prendre (to take) | pris | Elle a pris le train. — She took the train. |
| voir (to see) | vu | J’ai vu un film. — I saw a film. |
| boire (to drink) | bu | Tu as bu un café. — You drank a coffee. |
| lire (to read) | lu | Ils ont lu le livre. — They read the book. |
| écrire (to write) | écrit | J’ai écrit une lettre. — I wrote a letter. |
| mettre (to put) | mis | Il a mis son manteau. — He put on his coat. |
| dire (to say) | dit | Vous avez dit la vérité. — You told the truth. |
| pouvoir (to be able) | pu | Je n’ai pas pu venir. — I couldn’t come. |
| vouloir (to want) | voulu | Elle a voulu partir. — She wanted to leave. |
Passé Composé vs. Imparfait
The biggest source of confusion is choosing between the passé composé and the imparfait, French’s other main past tense. Both refer to the past, but they answer different questions.
- The passé composé reports completed, specific actions: what happened, once, at a defined moment.
- The imparfait paints the background: ongoing situations, habits, repeated actions, and descriptions with no clear endpoint.
| Passé composé (completed) | Imparfait (background/habitual) |
|---|---|
| Il a plu hier. — It rained yesterday. | Il pleuvait souvent. — It often used to rain. |
| J’ai appelé mon ami. — I called my friend. | Je téléphonais chaque soir. — I would phone every evening. |
| Soudain, elle est entrée. — Suddenly, she came in. | Elle était fatiguée. — She was tired. |
The two often work together in a single sentence: Je dînais quand le téléphone a sonné. (I was having dinner when the phone rang.) The ongoing dinner is the imparfait; the interrupting phone call is the passé composé. If you are building broader past-tense skills, it also helps to be comfortable with everyday verbs in context, and you can sharpen related vocabulary with our guide to French weather terms for beginners, since weather is a classic playground for both tenses.
Putting It All Together
Here is a short narrative that mixes avoir and être verbs, regular and irregular participles, so you can see the tense in natural flow:
Hier, je suis allé au musée d’Orsay. J’ai admiré les tableaux de Monet et j’ai pris quelques photos. Ensuite, je suis sorti et j’ai bu un café en terrasse. Le soir, je suis rentré chez moi et j’ai écrit dans mon journal.
Yesterday, I went to the Musée d’Orsay. I admired Monet’s paintings and took a few photos. Then I went out and drank a coffee on the terrace. In the evening, I returned home and wrote in my journal.
Reading short passages like this aloud trains your ear for the rhythm of the tense. As your confidence grows, you may want to round out your spoken French with natural closings, such as the expressions in our guide to saying goodbye in French, or celebratory phrases from our list of ways to say congratulations in French. Learners aiming for formal certification can also see how grammar like this is tested in our overview of the DALF exam and how to prepare.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know whether to use avoir or être?
Default to avoir, since most verbs use it. Switch to être only for the small set of movement and state-change verbs (aller, venir, partir, and so on) and for all reflexive verbs.
Does the past participle always change form?
No. With être, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number. With avoir, it stays unchanged unless a direct object appears before the verb, in which case it agrees with that object.
What is the difference between passé composé and imparfait?
The passé composé describes a completed action at a specific moment, while the imparfait describes ongoing, habitual, or background situations. They frequently appear together, with the imparfait setting the scene and the passé composé marking the key event.
How does the passé composé translate into English?
It corresponds to both the simple past (“I worked”) and the present perfect (“I have worked”). Context tells you which English form fits best.
What is the fastest way to learn irregular participles?
Focus first on the dozen or so most common irregular verbs (être, avoir, faire, prendre, voir, and the like), since they appear in almost every conversation. Learn them in full example sentences rather than as isolated words, and review them with spaced repetition until they become automatic.