User:W.andrea/sandbox/Passé composé

Draft edit summary: Clarify. Use, , and. Improve other formatting, use tables, and add links. Tag with. Listing all the être verb forms is too wordy.

Conjugation
The passé composé is formed with an auxiliary verb followed by the past participle of the conjugated verb. The auxilliary is to have except when it is  to be, as explained below. The construction is parallel to that of the present perfect. (There is no difference in French between perfect and non-perfect forms - although there is an important difference in usage between the perfect tense and the imperfect tense.)

The passé composé is usually translated into English as the simple past tense, like "I saw", or as the present perfect tense, like "I have seen". It could also be translated as the emphatic past tense, like "I did see". The auxiliary may actually be used similarly in any tense, leading to the French compound tenses.
 * J`ai vu quelque chose (I saw something / I have seen something)
 * Tu as parlé de quelque chose (You spoke of something / You have spoken of something)
 * Le garçon est sorti (The boy went out / The boy has gone out / The boy is out)

Auxiliary avoir
The default auxiliary is avoir.

Here is a basic example conjugation of to see in the passé composé:

Auxiliary être
The verbs that use être as an auxiliary are intransitive verbs that usually indicate motion or change of state.

Since some of these verbs can be used transitively as well, they will instead take avoir as an auxiliary in those instances; e.g. The verbs with both transitive and intransitive uses are sortir, monter, descendre, entrer, retourner, and passer.
 * Il est sorti (He went out / He has gone out / He is out)
 * Il a sorti un outil (He took out a tool)

Here is a basic example conjugation of to die in the passé composé:

These are the verbs that use être as their auxiliary in passé composé (for intransitive usage):
 * to become
 * to come back
 * to go up
 * to stay
 * to exit
 * to come
 * to go
 * to be born
 * to descend
 * to enter
 * to return
 * to fall
 * to re-enter
 * to arrive
 * to die
 * to leave
 * to die
 * to spend/pass (although it is only conjugated with être when describing movement)

The above have been remembered using the mnemonic acronym DR and MRS VANDERTRAMP. (Other teaching methods have been used. An alternative version of the mnemonic acronym adds a final "P" (as ...TRAMPP), to account for "passer". Language evolution with time poses a challenge for this approach.)

Reflexive forms
In addition to the above verbs, all reflexive/pronominal verbs use être as their auxiliary verb. A reflexive/pronominal verb is one that relates back to the speaker, either as an object e.g. Je me suis trompé 'I'm mistaken, I made a mistake' (= *j'ai trompé moi-même, literally 'I fooled myself'), or as a dative form e.g. Je me suis donné du temps (= * j'ai donné du temps à moi-même, 'I gave myself some time').