Transcript The Passé Composé

The Passé Composé
of –er verbs
To tell what happened in the past, use the
passé composé verb tense in French.
• Passé composé has two parts: a helping
verb and a past participle.
• Most verbs use avoir as their helping
verb. Use the form of avoir that matches
the subject of the sentence.
• Replace the –er verb ending with é to form
a verb’s past participle.
chercher (to look for)
J’ ai cherché
nous avons cherché
tu as cherché
vous avez cherché
il/elle/on a cherché
ils/elles ont cherché
The passé composé can be translated in
three different ways in English.
• J’ai mangé:
– I ate
– I have eaten
– I did eat
To say something didn’t happen, place
ne…pas around the helping verb.
• Je n’ai pas trouvé de chemise à ma taille.
– I didn’t find a shirt in my size.