The perfect tense: How to talk about the past in French

The perfect tense: How to talk about the past in French

To talk about something you did in the past, you're going to need the perfect ‎‎ tense.

The perfect tense is made up of two parts. The first part is often the verb avoir ‎- ‎to have and the second part is the past participle.‎

For example, j'ai mangé un sandwich - I have eaten a sandwich.

You take the form of avoir you need - j'ai and add it to the past participle of the ‎verb you need.

in this case, the past participle of manger is mangé‎.

J'ai mangé. ‎

For -er verbs the past participle ends in -é.‎

Other verbs follow different patterns. ‎

For lots of verbs ending in -ir like finir to finish the past participle ends in -i:

J'ai fini - I have finished.

prendre - to take - the ending of the past participle is -is‎:

Elle a pris le bus - She took the bus.

Normally ones to do with movement that work in a different way.‎

Instead of avoir they take être and the past participle. ‎

Je suis allé à la plage - I went to the beach‎.

Il est rentré à la maison - He came home.‎

So that's the perfect tense: J'ai fini - I have finished.‎

When to use the passé composé (perfect tense)

The passé composé (perfect tense) is used to talk about things that happened in the ‎past. It is often used with past time phrases:‎

J’ai joué au foot hier - I played football yesterday.‎
Tu as mangé un sandwich à midi? - Did you eat a sandwich for lunch?‎
Elle a regardé un film le week-end dernier - She watched a film last weekend.‎

Here are some useful past time phrases:‎

French	English
hier	yesterday
hier soir	yesterday evening / last night
lundi dernier	last Monday
la semaine dernière	last week
le mois dernier	last month
l’année dernière	last year

How to form the passé composé ‎

To form the passé composé, you need three parts:‎
‎1. A noun or pronoun such as je (I), tu (you), or il/elle (he/she).‎
2. An auxiliary verb - this is either avoir (to have) or être (to be).‎
‎3. A past participle such as joué (played) or regardé (watched).‎

The auxiliary verb avoir needs to change according to who did the action (I, you, ‎he, she, etc) but the past participle stays the same.‎

Forming past participles with regular verbs

Regular -ER verbs

Most verbs in French end with -er. To form the past participle of an -ER verb, you need ‎to remove the -er from the infinitive and add -é:‎

jouer (to play) - j’ai joué - I played.
manger (to eat) - il a mangé - He ate.
habiter (to live) - tu as habité où? - Where did you live?‎
regarder (to watch) - j’ai regardé - I watched.

Regular -IR verbs

To make the past participle of a regular -IR verb, you need to remove the -ir from the ‎infinitive and add -i:‎

finir (to finish) - j’ai fini - I finished.‎
choisir (to choose) - tu as choisi? - Did you choose?

Regular -RE verbs

To form the past participle of regular -RE verbs, you remove the -re from the infinitive ‎and add -u:‎

vendre (to sell) - j’ai vendu - I sold.
entendre (to hear) - elle a entendu - she heard.

‎ Irregular past participles in the passé composé

Some common verbs have irregular past participles in the passé composé. This means ‎that they don’t follow the same rules as regular verbs.

Here are some useful irregular verbs and their past participles with examples:‎

English	french infinitive	past participle	Example
to have	avoir	eu	J’ai eu un accident‎ - I had an accident.‎
to be	être	été	Tu as été malade? - Have you been ill?‎
to do	faire	fait	Il a fait ses devoirs - He did his homework.‎
to drink	boire	bu	Elle a bu du jus d’orange - She drank orange juice.‎
to take	prendre	pris	J’ai pris une photo - ‎I took a photo. ‎

Forming the passé composé with être

With some verbs, such as aller, you need to use the auxiliary verb être, followed by a ‎past participle:‎

Je suis allé au supermarché - I went to the supermarket.‎
Tu es allé à Nottingham? - Did you go to Nottingham?‎
Il est allé au parc - He went to the park.‎

If you are talking to or about a female person, the past participle needs to agree with the ‎person as an adjective would. An ‘e’ is added to the end of the past participle.‎ This is only when the auxiliary verb is être.‎

Je suis allée à Nice - I (female) went to Nice.‎
Tu es allée en Espagne? - Did you (female) go to Spain?‎
Elle est allée au centre sportif - She went to the sports centre.‎

Here are some other useful verbs that take être as their auxiliary verb, with some ‎examples:‎

English	French infinitive	Past participle	Example
to stay	rester	resté	Je suis resté(e) chez moi - I stayed at home.‎
to leave / go out	sortir	sorti	Elle est sortie de la maison - She left the house.‎
to arrive	arriver	arrivé	Tu es arrivé(e) quand? - When did you arrive?‎