The French Passé Composé: Complete Guide
The passé composé is the most important past tense in modern French. It's used to narrate past events, completed actions and experiences. It's essential for DELF B1 and B2: it shows up in listening comprehension, reading comprehension and written production. This guide covers everything you need to know.
Structure of the passé composé
The passé composé is formed with an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) conjugated in the present + the past participle of the main verb. Example with avoir: j'ai mangé, tu as parlé, il a fini. Example with être: je suis allé(e), tu es parti(e), il est venu. Choosing the correct auxiliary is one of the trickiest parts of this tense — even for English speakers, since English simply always uses have (I have gone, I have eaten), with no equivalent of the être pattern at all.
When to use être as the auxiliary?
Être is used with verbs of movement and change of state: aller, venir, partir, arriver, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, tomber, rester, retourner, passer (in the sense of movement). It's also used with all reflexive verbs (se lever, se coucher, se souvenir...). Memory trick: these verbs are traditionally grouped under the acronym DR MRS VANDERTRAMP or nicknamed 'la maison d'être'.
Past participle agreement
With être, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject: Elle est arrivée (feminine singular), Ils sont partis (masculine plural), Elles sont venues (feminine plural). With avoir, the past participle does NOT agree with the subject: Nous avons mangé des pizzas. However, with avoir, agreement does occur when a direct object precedes the verb: Les livres que j'ai lus (the books I read).
Forming the past participle
Past participles follow these patterns: -er verbs → é (parler → parlé, manger → mangé). -ir verbs → i (finir → fini, partir → parti). -re verbs → u (vendre → vendu, attendre → attendu). Frequent irregular participles: être → été, avoir → eu, faire → fait, dire → dit, écrire → écrit, prendre → pris, mettre → mis, voir → vu, vouloir → voulu, pouvoir → pu, savoir → su, venir → venu, tenir → tenu.
Passé composé vs Imparfait
Choosing between passé composé and imparfait is a key point in the DELF. The passé composé describes single, completed actions with a clear time boundary: Hier, j'ai appelé ma mère (Yesterday, I called my mother). The imparfait describes states, habitual past actions, or the background against which another action happens: Quand j'étais petit, je jouais au foot (When I was little, I used to play football). The most natural combination: Quand il est arrivé (passé composé), nous dînions (imparfait) — When he arrived, we were having dinner.
Practice exercises
1Choose the correct auxiliary: 'Elle _____ partie ce matin.'
2What is the correct past participle? 'Nous avons _____ (faire) une erreur.'
3What is the correct reflexive form? 'Ils _____ (se lever) à 7h.'
4What does the passé composé express in this sentence? 'J'ai visité Paris l'année dernière.'
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using have with every verb, the way English always does: *j'ai allé instead of je suis allé — French requires être with movement verbs, English has no such distinction (I have gone works for everything).
- Forgetting participle agreement with être, since English participles never change form: *il est allé bien instead of elle est allée.
- Overusing the passé composé where imparfait is needed for background description or ongoing states — English's simple past (was, went) doesn't signal this distinction the way French does: *Il a été fatigué instead of Il était fatigué.
- Missing that depuis + present describes something still going on: I have been living here for 3 years is j'habite ici depuis 3 ans (present tense), not a passé composé.
- Confusing irregular participles: *j'ai venu instead of je suis venu.
DELF exam tips
- In DELF B1/B2, written production is graded partly on whether you correctly alternate between passé composé and imparfait when narrating.
- Memorize the roughly 17 verbs that take être before the exam. Practice by writing an account of a holiday using both tenses.
- In reading comprehension, the passé composé signals the chronological sequence of events — it helps you reconstruct the storyline.
- When speaking, if you're unsure between avoir and être, ask yourself: does the subject move or change state? If yes, it's probably être.