Perfect Tense

The perfect tense may be expressed in three ways in English, but only one way in French.

English                                         French

I worked

I have worked                             J’ai travaillé

I did work

In French you must follow the formula:

Person/Subject + present tense of "avoir"/"être" + past participle

Most verbs use "avoir" in the perfect tense

j’ai                     nous avons

tu as                 vous avez

il/elle a              ils/elles ont

Past Participles

In English the past participle is that part of the verb which follows "I have ….". For regular verbs the past participle will normally end in "ed", e.g. "I have listened", but irregular verbs have to be learned separately, e.g. "I have forgotten".

In French the past participle of regular verbs is formed by altering the infinitive.

Infinitives ending in "er" – remove the "er" and add "é", e.g. regardé, écouté

Infinitives ending in "re" – remove the "re" and add "u", e.g. vendu, attendu

Infinitives ending in "ir" – remove the "ir" and add "i", e.g. fini, choisi

Don’t forget you need the correct part of "avoir" before the past participle!

Examples of regular verbs

j’ai regardé                         j’ai vendu                         j’ai fini

tu as regardé                      tu as vendu                     tu as fini

il a regardé                         il a vendu                         il a fini

nous avons regardé          nous avons vendu           nous avons fini

vous avez regardé             vous avez vendu             vous avez fini

elles ont regardé                elles ont vendu                elles ont fini

Past participles of irregular verbs must be learned separately – see verb sheets.

About 18 verbs (listed below) use "être" instead of "avoir". The structure remains the same, apart from the use of "être" instead of "avoir"

e.g.     je suis allé(e)             N.B. If the verb takes "être", the past

            tu es allé(e)                    participle must agree with the

            il est allé                        gender and number of the subject

            elle est allée                   i.e. add an "e" if the person is feminine,

            nous sommes allé(e)s        and an "s" if the person is plural.

            vous êtes allé(e)(s)(es)

            ils sont allés

            elles sont allées

Verbs taking etre

aller (allé)                             to go

arriver (arrivé)                       to arrive/happen/manage

descendre (descendu)*           to go down/take down

devenir (devenu)                    to become

entrer (entré)                        to enter

monter (monté)*                     to go up/take up

mourir (mort)                         to die

naître (né)                             to be born

partir (parti)                          to leave

parvenir (parvenu)                  to succeed/manage

passer (passé)*                       to pass/go/sit (exam)

rentrer (rentré)*                     to return (home)/to take in

rester (resté)                         to stay

retourner (retourné)*             to return

revenir (revenu)                     to return/go back

sortir (sorti)                           to go out

tomber (tombé)                     to fall

venir (venu)                            to come

Remember the past participles of these verbs (and all their derivatives) must agree with the subject in the perfect tense.

Verbs marked * will take "avoir" instead of "être" if they are followed by a direct object, e.g. "Je suis descendu à sept heures." but "J’ai descendu l’escalier.".

Reflexive verbs in the perfect tense

All reflexives follow this pattern:

Person/Subject + reflexive + part of "être" + past participle

e.g. je me suis lavé(e)                 nous nous sommes lavé(e)s

        tu t’es lavé(e)                    vous vous êtes lavé(e)(s)(es)

        il s’est lavé                        elles se sont lavées

Grammar links