Frenchvita

The perfect:

The perfect tense in French is called “Le passé composé”. Like the perfect in English, you learn what a person has done or what event has taken place with the French perfect. However it is also used as the equivalent of the English simple past to learn what a person did or what event took place in a specific time.

• English: This weekend we ate in a French restaurant.
• French: Ce week-end nous avons mangé dans un restaurant français.
• English: Have you ever eaten in French restaurant?
• French: Avez-vous déjà mangé dans un restaurant français?

Formation

The perfect is a compound tense. This means that it is formed of at least two words:

• The auxiliary verb and the past participle

Like in English the auxiliary verb is “avoir” however some of the verbs in the perfect use the verb “être” as the auxiliary instead. For example:

• J’ai mangé – I have eaten
• Je suis allé - I have gone

So we now need to look at

1. Finding the Past Participle
2. Past participle and Avoir as an auxiliary verb
3. Past participles and Etre as an auxiliary verb

Finding the Past Participle

The majority of the verbs are formed with the auxiliary “to have” followed by the past participle:

Past participle:

1st group (-ER)	2nd group (-IR)	3rd group (-RE)
Chanté	Fini	Rendu

To create the past participle you need to remove the infinitive ending to get the stem and add the following endings:

1st group (-ER)	2nd group (-IR)	3rd group (-RE)
-é	-i	-u

Exercise: Try to change the infinitive form into the past participle form for the following verbs:

Differences

As expected there are some differences in the endings for the past participles. The first group of verbs is very regular so you have always the past participles ending in –é. The second group of verbs is also very regular with its ending of –i.

The third group of verbs varies:

The majority end with –u with some exceptions, the same applies to irregular verbs.

Here is a list of verbs regular and irregular verbs belonging to the group of verbs whose infinitive ends either with –RE or –IR. You will see that some of them have a past participle ending in –u and some belong to the exceptions:

-RE & derivatives
Etre	été	(been)
Naître	né	(born)
Lire	lu	(read)
Convaincre	convaincu	(convinced)
Mettre	mis	(put)
Tendre	tendu	(hold on to)
Vendre	vendu	(sold)
Conduire	conduit	(driven)
Convaincre	convaincu	(convinced)
Ecrire	écrit	(written)
Prendre	pris	(taken)
Dire	dit	(told)
Peindre	peint	(painted)

-IR
Rire	ri	(laughed)
Partir	parti	(left)
Sentir	senti	(felt/smelt)
Venir	venu	(come)
Tenir	tenu	(hold)
Courir	couru	(run)
Devoir	dû/due*	(must have)
Pouvoir	pu	(was able to/could)
Vouloir	voulu	(wanted)
Voir	vu	(seen)
Ouvrir	ouvert	(opened)

*Devoir has an accent on the “û” when it is used with a masculine object (this will be explained very soon) and takes the –e without any accent on the –u when used with a feminine object.

Exercise: Here are a list of past participles and a list of nouns. You need to link the right noun to the right participle
Exercise: Translate the list of past participles and nouns from the exercise above.

Now that we had a look at the past participles we need to see how they are used with the auxiliary verbs.

Past participle and Avoir as an auxiliary verb:

In French we use the verb to have – “avoir”, most of the time as in English:

• J’ai mangé (eaten)
• Nous avons mis de nouveaux pantalons (put on)
• Tu as pris tes clés (taken)
• Vous avez chanté toute la nuit (sang)
• Il a perdu ses clés (lost)
• Ils ont vu un film avec Gérard Depardieu (seen)

In general there is no agreement between the past participle and the subject but when and only when the direct object is before the auxiliary verb “avoir” then the past participle has to agree with the gender and the number of the direct object. Puzzled and fed up with French verbs? No! have a look:

• J’ai mangé une tarte aux pommes – I ate/have eaten an apple tart

What did I eat? An apple tart. The direct object is "une tarte aux pommes" and is after the auxilary verb “have/ai”, there is no need for agreement.

Now if I have the direct object before the auxiliary:

• La tarte aux pommes que j’ai mangéE - the apple tart that I ate 

we have the direct object before the auxilary and in this case we need to add the –E at the end of the participle to agree with the feminine noun “la tarte”.

If I use the plural for “la tarte” then we end up with agreement in gender and number:

• Les tartes aux pommes que j’ai mangéES - the apple tarts I have eaten /I ate

Unless you write the sentence you hardly notice these agreements unless the past participle ends with a consonant.

• La tarte que j’ai faite – The tart that I made

In this example you need to pronounce the –E at the end of the past participle “faite”and then it becomes obvious that there is a difference between a masculine direct object and a feminine one:

• Le gateau que j’ai fait – the cake that I made
• La tarte que j’ai faite – The tart that I made

This rule is only for the Direct Object and does not apply to the indirect object:

• La femme à qui j’ai parlé – The woman to whom/ (who) I spoke (to)
• J’ai parlé à la femme – I spoke to the woman.

So it is imperative that you can make the distinction between direct and indirect objects.

Exercise: Use the perfect and translate the English verb
Exercise: Are the past participles accurate? Write the past participles you think are correct in the gaps

Past participles and Etre as an auxiliary verb

Unlike in English the French language uses another auxiliary verb, “être”, to be, with some past participles.

Aller (to go)

Je suis allé(e)

Tu es allé(e)

Il est allé(e)

Nous sommes allé(e)s

Vous êtes allé(e)s

Ils sont all(é)s

These are not the majority and there are a few tricks to learn how to remember them:

• The key word to remember is ADVENT

 

A for	Arriver	with its opposite	Partir	(to arrive-to leave)
D for	Descendre	with its opposite	Monter	(to go down-to go up)
V for	Venir	with its “almost” opposite	Aller	(to come-to go)
E for	Entrer	with its opposite	Sortir	(to go in- to go out)
N for	Naître	with its opposite	Mourir	(to be born-to die)
T for	Tomber	with “almost” its opposite	Rester	(this doesn’t mean to rest but to stay) (to fall-to stay)

These verbs always use the auxiliary verb to be with their past participle:

• Je suis tombé dans les escaliers quand il est monté me voir.
• Quand elle est arrivée elle est entrée sans frapper.
• Quand tu es parti, il est allé voir un film.
• Son père est mort quand son fils est né.
• Nous sommes restées au théâtre et nous sommes arrivées à la maison vers 2 heures.
• Ce nouveau film est sorti il y a deux jours. Vous êtes venu le voir avec Jeanne ?
• Nous sommes descendus pour le rencontrer.

Note that in this case the agreement takes place between the subject of the sentence and the past participle:

Je ( is a woman) suis arrivéE

Tu es (is a man) arrivé

Elle est venuE/il est venu

Nous ( are only women) sommes arrivéES

*Vous (are only men) êtes arrivéS

Elles sont arrivéES vers trois heures

*Note that “Vous” can be the formal you, one person only so we can end up with “vous êtes arrivé(e).

Reflexive verbs are a group of verbs which require the use of the auxiliary verb 'to be' in the perfect:

Je me suis lavé(e)

Tu t’es lavé(e)

Il s’est lavé/elle s’est lavée

Nous nous sommes lavé(e/s)

Vous vous êtes lavé(e/s)

Ils se sont lavés/elles se sont lavées

If je, tu ou nous and vous represent a feminine subject then we need to add the –e and always an –s when there is more than one subject.

Use of the perfect

As mentioned earlier, the perfect shows what occurred or has happened, what someone did or has done. It stresses facts and not descriptions. It is called “perfect” because it implies that the actions which took place are completed.

The following list describes the main uses of the passé-composé but is not inclusive of all the function of this tense.

Le passé-composé is used to express :

Suddenness

• The vase fell when he entered the kitchen.
• Le vase est tombé quand il est entré dans la cuisine.

The time is known

• He left school yesterday around 3 o’clock
• Il est parti de l’école hier vers 3 heures.

Note:

• It rained all day yesterday
• Hier il a plu toute la journée.

• It rained yesterday
• Il pleuvait hier.

Here in French it is the imperfect “pleuvait” which is being used. This is done so because the action of raining is not an event but a circumstance therefore a description with no link to the present at all.

When we use “il a plu” it is the action of raining viewed as a past and completed event which is taken into consideration.

Think about this:

• He was good looking, he may still be or used to be (imperfect in French, il était beau)
• He was good looking, he is no longer so (perfect in French, il a été beau).

With the perfect the action is no longer relevant to the present and is completed.

With Depuis (for /since)

• I haven’t sung since yesterday
• Je n’ai pas chanté depuis hier.

• I haven’t been singing for a long time
• Je n’ai pas chanté depuis longtemps.

For and since are both translated by Depuis.

The same applies to the question with “for how long” and “how long” and the perfect:

• For how long have you lived in Germany?
• Pendant combien de temps avez-vous habité en Allemagne?

• How long did you live in Germany?
• Combien de temps avez-vous habité en Allemangne?

Now the perfect has been covered, it's time to consider: The Imperfect