This is a tense used to tell events that happened once in the past, or over a short time frame, like a day, or possibly a week. Like the name says, it's composed of two verb forms to form one form: the auxiliary verb and the past participle.
The auxiliary verb, also called the 'helping' verb, sounds difficult, but it is really just the verbs avoir and être.
There are two groups in this tense, Group One, or 'Avoir Verbs' and Group 2, or 'Être Verbs.'
Just my advice, break this chapter up, or you might confuse yourself. This tense isn't difficult, it's just very tedious and there's a lot to it.
》THE AVOIR VERBS
The Past Participle
To get the past partciple:
Regular Verbs:
Change the 'er' verbs to 'é' e.g. manger- mangé, parler- parlé
Change the 'ir' verbs to 'i' e.g. choisir- choisi, finir- fini
Change the 're' verbs to 'u' e.g. vendre- vendu, attendre- attendu
Irregular Verbs:
》Être (to be) - été
》Avoir (to have) - eu
》Faire (to make/ do) - fait
》Prendre (to take/ have food/ drink) - pris
》Pouvoir (to be able to) - pu
》Vouloir (to wish/ want) - voulu
》Écrire (to write) - écrit
》Savoir (to know a fact) - su
》Connaître (to know a person) - connu
》Recevoir (to recieve) - reçu
》Voir (to see) - vu
》Devoir (to have to)- dû
》Courir (to run) - couru
》Lire (to read) - lu
》Dire (to say/ tell) - dit
》Tenir (to hold)- tenu
Examples
J'ai vu Claire à l'école- I saw Claire at school
J'ai mangé mon dîner hier soir- I ate my dinner yesterday evening
J'ai lu ce livre- I have read that book
Negatives
Put 'ne' before the auxiliary, and 'pas/ rien/ etc.' after
Je n'ai pas fait un gâteau- I didn't make a cake
Hint: with the avoir verbs, you will always use n', never ne, as they all begin with a vowel.
》The Être Verbs
The être verbs are a bit different. They use the auxiliary and past participle, but the past participle agrees in gender and number of the noun.
E.g. Marie est allée- Marie went
Masculine singular noun- add nothing
Feminine noun- add an e
Masculine plural noun/ mixed groups- add s
Feminine plurals- add es
E.g. Aller- To go. This is an être verb. It has a regular past partciple of allé.
》Je suis allé(e)- I have gone/ I went [add the e if you are female]
This will never change, unless if you are writing from a female point of view, quoting a text, etc. In other words, unless you change gender, you'll be using Je suis allé or allée forever.
》Tu es allé(e)- this form will change, depending on who you're talking to.
》Il est allé- this will always stay the same.
》Elle est allée- this will always stay the same.
》On- avoid using for now as it can get quite complicated due to the fact it has many different meanings, and therefore different agreements.
》Nous sommes allé(e)s- if you are masculine, this form will never change. This is because, in French, mixed groups are masculine, even if there's only one male and ten females. If you are female, it will vary, depending on the people in the group. Usually, though, females will use nous sommes allées, but, again, it will change.
》Vous êtes allé(e)(s)- as vous can be masculine, feminine, singular and plural, it will change a lot, depending on the person/ people you are talking to.
》Ils sont allés- will never change. If the group is mixed, use this form.
》Elles sont allées- will never change.
So, to recap:
Je suis allé(e)
Tu es allé(e)
Il est allé
Elle est allée
Nous sommes allé(e)s
Vous êtes allé(e)(s)
Ils sont allés
Elles sont allées
In total, there are 16 être verbs (the Past Participle is in bold):
1. Aller- to go. Allé
2. Arriver- to arrive. Arrivé
3. Entrer- to enter. Entré
4. Rentrer- to re-enter/ to return home. Rentré
5. Rester- to stay. Resté
6. Tomber- to fall. Tombé
7. Retourner- to return (an object/ to place where speaker is not present). Retourné
8. Monter- to ascend/ go onto a bus, train, etc. Monté
9. Descendre- to descend/ get off bus, train, etc. Descendu
10. Partir- to leave. Parti
11. Sortir- to go out. Sorti
12. Venir- to come. Venu
13. Revenir- to come back. Revenu
14. Devenir- to become. Devenu
15. Naître- to be born. Né
16. Mourir- to die. Mort
》Reflexive Verbs
The Reflexive Verbs take être, but they don't always agree.
If the object comes after the subject, there is no agreement.
Example: elle s'est lavé ses cheveux- she washed her hair
However, if you just wanted to say 'she washed herself' you'd say elle s'est lavée.
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