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The perfect tense in French

We use the perfect tense in French to talk about an action that has finished. It was a completed action and not an action that was taking place over a longer period of time (like the imperfect tense).

Format

To form the past tense in French, we need to use an auxiliary verb: either ÊTRE or AVOIR.
Most regular verbs take AVOIR as their auxiliary verb.
Some regular, irregular, and reflexive verbs take ÊTRE as their auxiliary verb.
We then need a past participle for the verb that was completed in the past.
- If your verb is a regular verb, it will take AVOIR as its auxiliary verb.
- So, even though we are forming a past tense, we need to first of all use the present tense of AVOIR.

AVOIR in the present tense

Je/J' ai
Tu as
Il/elle/on a
Nous avons
Vous avez
Ils/Elles ont

Format (continued)

Once you know which personal pronoun and ‘bit’ of AVOIR you need in the present tense, we then need to add a past participle.
These 2 bits together then form the past tense (the perfect tense).
- ER verbs : Remove the ER ending and +é
- IR verbs : Remove the IR ending and +i
- RE verbs : Remove the RE ending and +u
  - I spoke : J'ai parlé
  - I finished : J'ai fini
  - I sold : J'ai vendu

Verbs that take ÊTRE as auxiliary

Verbs which require ‘movement’ typically take ÊTRE as their auxiliary verb before adding a past participle.
- aller (to go) - arriver (to arrive)
- descendre (to go down) - devenir (to become)
- entrer (to enter into or go into) - monter (to go up)
- mourir (to die) -naitre (to be born)
- partir (to leave) - rentrer (to return home)
- rester (to stay) - retourner (to return)
- revenir (to come back) -sortir (to go out)
- tomber (to fall) -venir (to come)

ÊTRE in the present tense

Je suis
Tu es
Il/elle/on est
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils/Elles sont
- Just like the verbs that take AVOIR in the perfect tense, they all need a past participle to accompany them.

Irregular verbs

However, some past participles are irregular (whether or not you are using AVOIR or ETRE as the auxiliary verb):
- avoir = eu - boire = bu - connaitre = connu
- courir = couru - devoir = dû - dire = dit
- écrire = écrit - être = été - faire = fait
- lire = lu - mettre = mis - mourir = mort
- naitre = né - ouvrir = ouvert - pouvoir = pu
- prendre = pris - recevoir = reçu - savoir = su
- venir = venu - vivre = vécu - voir = vu
- vouloir = voulu

Example

To say I went, use ÊTRE in the present tense (because it’s a verb of movement) 'je suis' and then add the past participle of to go.
- This is a regular past participle = Je suis allé
To say I did, use AVOIR in the present tense 'j’ai' and add the past participle of faire which is an irregular past participle, fait.
- J’ai fait
Verbs that take ÊTRE in the perfect tense must agree with the subject of the sentence.
For example:
- Il est allé (he went)
- Elle est allée (she went)