Passé Composé with
“Avoir”
Le passé composé is used to express completed actions. This tense makes use of two
verbs: a helping verb in the present (either avoir or être) and the past participle of the
verb connected to the completed action. Today, we will focus on those verbs that take
avoir as their helping verb.
First, you need to know how to conjugate avoir in the present tense. You should know
this by now, but let’s review it.
j’ai
tu as
il/elle/on a
nous avons
vous avez
ils/elles ont
Next, you need to learn how to form a verb's past participle. For regular verbs, the past
participle is based on the following formula:
Type of Verb
Past Participle Ending
Examples
Regular –er verbs drop -er and add -é
J’ai regardé la télé. (“I watched T.V.”)
Regular –ir verbs drop -ir and add -i
J’ai fini mes devoirs. (“I finished my homework.”)
Regular –re verbs drop -re and add -u
J’ai attendu. (“I waited.”)
Now you know how to form the passé composé of all regular verbs that take avoir as
their helping verb:
manger  j'ai mangé (“I ate”)
vendre  tu as vendu (“you sold”)
mentir  nous avons menti (“we lied”)
Note that the passé composé can have several English equivalents depending on
context:
j'ai joué = I played, I have played, I did play
Irregular Verbs
We have talked about regular verbs and the way they are formed in the passé
composé. But what about those irregular verbs that take avoir as their helping verb?
The passé composé of irregular verbs uses avoir in the same fashion as it does with
regular verbs. However, the past participle is different for irregular verbs. The following
table shows the past participles of several irregular verbs that are conjugated with avoir
in the passé composé.
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Passé Composé with
“Avoir”
Infinitive
Past Participle
avoir = “to have”
eu
boire = “to drink”
bu
connaître = “to know”
connu
dire = “to say”
dit
écrire = “to write”
écrit
être = “to be”
été
faire = “to do, to make”
fait
mettre = “to put on”
mis
pouvoir = “to be able to”
pu
prendre = “to take”
pris
voir = “to see”
vu
vouloir = “to want to”
voulu
The passé composé construction is the same with irregular verbs as it is with regular
verbs. Look at the following examples:
Ils ont bu du lait. “They drank milk.”
Vous avez pris le bus. “You took the bus.”
Note: The past participle of avoir is eu and the past participle of être is été. Both of
those verbs use avoir as their helping verb in the passé composé.
J’ai eu un examen d'histoire ce matin. “I had a history test this morning.”
Tu as été très patiente. “You have been very patient.”
Negation
Now, if you want to negate a verb in the passé composé, remember that the negative
expression (ex: ne...pas) goes around the verb that is conjugated. In the case of the
passé composé, that verb is the helping verb: avoir or être.
Je n'ai pas mangé les escargots au repas français.
“I did not eat the snails at the French dinner.”
Nous n’avons pas souvent cru notre professeur.
“We didn’t believe our teacher often.”
Later, you will learn how to form the past participle of verbs that take être as their
helping verb. But for now, make sure you understand today's lesson.
The Passé Composé with “Avoir”
© 2012 Middlebury Interactive Languages.
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