French Grammar Review WebPage

To form the preterit tense in French, use the following formula:

2 parts to PC = HELPING VERB + PAST PARTICIPLE

Helping verbs : avoir and être

j’ai                        ns avons                        je suis              ns sommes
tu as                      vs avez                         tu es                 vs êtes
il/elle a                   ils/elles ont                   il/elle est            ils/elles sont
 

Past Participle Formation

ER verbs change to é
IR verbs change to I
RE verbs change to U

 

 

 

 

 

There are two categories of verbs that take etre as their helping verb:

être verbs : Yankee Doodle Dandee and ALL reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs are introduced by "se" before the infinitive.  All the rest of the verbs that take etre as a helping verb are listed below in their past participle form.  You can remember them by singing the Yankee Doodle Dandee song.

allé, parti, sorti, venu, descendu, retourné, arrivé, resté,

monté, entré, né, mort, devenu, revenu, rentré
 

Agreement

When être is the helping verb, all past participles agree in number and gender with the subject of the sentence.

Examples:

Text Box: irregular past participles avoir (to have): eu                         dire (to say): dit                     recevoir (to receive): reçu                             boire(to drink): bu                         faire (to do): fait                     savoir (to know): su                                       devoir (to must): du                       lire (to read): lu                      venir (to come): venu                                   conduire (to drive): conduit            mettre (to put): mis                voir (to see): vu                                                                  être (to be): été                                            ouvrir (to open): ouvert                 vouloir (to want): voulu                                                      écrire (to write): écrit                                 pouvoir (to be able): pu                                                                                                              connaitre (to know): connu                     prendre (to take): pris                                                                                                                                 *Irregular past participles still have to have helping verbs* Sophie est allée            Sophie et Claire sont allées

 

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