Le Passé Composé avec "Avoir" (past tense with avoir)
Video
Notes
- The passé composé is the first, and most common, past tense that we will learn. It is used to describe a completed action that has occurred in the past.
Ex: Marianne a regardé le film Batman vs. Superman pendant les vacances de printemps. - Depending on the context, the passé composé will translate to English in three ways:
Ex: J'ai mangé toute la viande.
I ate all of the meat.
I have eaten all of the meat.
I did eat all of the meat. - The passé composé (past composed) is composed of two parts: l'auxiliaire (auxiliary) ET le participe passé (past participle). BOTH parts are absolutely necessary, otherwise the meaning changes.
- As shown below, there are two different verbs that could be the auxiliaire: avoir or être, which depends on the verb being used. Most verbs will use "avoir," though there is a set called "VANDERTRAMPP" verbs that use être instead.
- We will focus on avoir for now, so that will be our only auxiliaire for the time being.
- You choose the correct conjugation of the auxiliaire according to the subject of the verb.
- The participe passé is determined by your verb and, for a regular verb, it is formed by dropping the infinitive ending and adding the appropriate ending according to wheter the verb is -er, -ir, or -re.
- Here is an example of a regular verb (parler) completely conjugated in the passé composé.
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- Le passé composé au négatif
- In order to use the negative construction ne...pas (or other adverb) in the passé composé, you place the ne...pas around the conjugated verb, which is the auxiliary in the passé composé.
Ex: Il a mangé beaucoup de nourriture.
Il n'a pas mangé beaucoup de nourriture.
Il a regardé un film très intéressant.
Il n'a rien regardé. - Le passé composé à l'inversion
- To use the passé composé to ask a question, you can either use "est-ce que" or inversion.
- To use est-ce que, simply place the phrase "est-ce que" at the beginning of your sentence.
Ex: Elle a fait les devoirs. > Est-ce qu'elle a fait les devoirs? - To use the passé composé with inversion, you invert the subject and the auxiliary, leaving the past participle alone.
Ex: Elle a fait les devoirs. > A-t-elle fait les devoirs? - Le passé composé et les objets directs
- Just like in the present tense, an object pronoun will come BEFORE the verb conjugation. Because the passé composé has two parts, this simply means that the object pronoun will come before BOTH the auxiliaire and the participe passé.
Ex: Elle a mangé le poulet. > Elle l'a mangé. - When you have a direct object, or direct object pronoun, that precedes the past participle, you MUST MAKE AGREEMENT between the past participle and the direct object.
Quand vous avez un object direct qui précède le participe passé, vous accordez le participe passé avec l'objet direct.
Past participles follow the same agreement rules as adjectives.
Ex: Vous avez acheté la belle chemise. > Vous l'avez achetée.
Because "la belle chemise" is feminine, you will add an additional "e" to the end of the past participle "acheté."
Activities
Introducing Le Passé Composé with the song J'ai Cherché by Amir
Use this song to show le passé composé in context.
Use this song to show le passé composé in context.
- Give students a copy of the lyrics to the song J'ai Cherché in French. Underline where one sees le passé composé. Here is a PDF of the lyrics.
- Before you allow the students to follow with the lyrics, have them just watch the video the first time and predict what the song is about.
- Allow students to listen to the song and follow the lyrics the second time.
- Then, have students go through and define unknown words. They can use the English translation or a dictionary.
- Go over the definitions after about 5 minutes.
- Next, have students identify how to construct passé composé using the underlined words in the song.
- Next, review and share the construction. If the students are unable to identify how the passé composé works, explain it.
- Have the students listen to the song one more time, this time focusing on what Amir says happened.
- Finally, as an extension activity, have students write a letter to somebody who changed their life, listing the things that person helped him/her to do.
Écrire: Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé?
- The photos below are a picture diary of what happened to Bos last week during his shopping trips.
- Using the passé composé, you will create a caption for what happened in each of the photos.
- Make sure you pay attention to your conjugations and each verb has TWO PARTS (auxiliary + past participle).
Additional Sites
Videos
A catchy tune to help students to remember the formation of the past participles for regular verbs.
Video courtesy of Étienne- DJ DELF
Video courtesy of Étienne- DJ DELF