The passé composé is French's main past tense for completed events — "I ate", "she went", "we saw". It is built from two pieces: a present-tense helper (avoir or être) plus a past participle. This lesson builds it step by step: regular and irregular participles, which verbs take être, and how the participle agrees.
The grammar here is the same French you will meet in every context; the examples are voiced through Cambridge IGCSE’s five topic areas — everyday activities (home & school), personal & social life (family & free time), the world around us (town, travel & the environment), the world of work (jobs), and the international world (customs & global issues).
Work through each screen and answer the questions as you go — some ask you to recognise the right form, some ask you to produce it by typing. Collect ⭐ stars and press Start.
The passé composé reports an action that happened and finished. In English it usually matches "I did" or "I have done":
Why "composé"? Because it is composed of two words: a helper verb in the present, then the past participle. You never use just one word on its own — je mangé is wrong. It must be j'ai mangé.
For regular verbs, the past participle is easy — it depends only on the infinitive ending:
| family | rule & example |
|---|---|
| -er verbs | -er → -é · parler → parlé |
| -ir verbs | -ir → -i · finir → fini |
| -re verbs | -re → -u · vendre → vendu |
Say it out loud: -er becomes -é (chop the r, add an accent), -ir becomes -i (just drop the r), and -re becomes -u. So manger → mangé, choisir → choisi, attendre → attendu.
The great majority of verbs use avoir in the present as their helper. Put avoir first, then the participle:
| person | form |
|---|---|
| j' | ai parlé |
| tu | as parlé |
| il / elle / on | a parlé |
| nous | avons parlé |
| vous | avez parlé |
| ils / elles | ont parlé |
The pattern: only the helper changes for each person — the participle stays the same with avoir. So j'ai mangé, il a fait, nous avons vu. Learn the present of avoir cold (from cluster 2) and this tense is half done.
Many high-frequency verbs have their own past participle. These come up constantly, so learn them by heart:
| avoir | eu |
| être | été |
| faire | fait |
| prendre | pris |
| mettre | mis |
| voir | vu |
| boire | bu |
| lire | lu |
| écrire | écrit |
| dire | dit |
| venir | venu |
| vouloir | voulu |
| pouvoir | pu |
| devoir | dû |
Common trap: do not "regularise" an irregular verb. "He did/made" is il a fait — never il a faisé. There is no rule for these; you simply memorise them.
Most verbs use avoir, but a group of movement / change-of-state verbs use être as the helper instead. A classic memory trick is DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP:
Also all reflexives. Every reflexive verb (with me, te, se…) takes être too: je me suis levé = "I got up". So aller → je suis allé, partir → il est parti.
Which helper does each verb take in the passé composé?
When the helper is être, the past participle agrees with the subject — just like an adjective. Add -e for feminine, -s for plural:
| subject | form |
|---|---|
| il (m) | est allé |
| elle (f) | est allée |
| ils (m pl) | sont allés |
| elles (f pl) | sont allées |
Reflexives too: je me suis levé (a boy) but je me suis levée (a girl). With avoir verbs there is no subject agreement — elle a mangé stays plain. Agreement is an être-only rule.
Tap an infinitive on the left, then tap its past participle on the right.
Reflexive verbs (with me, te, se, nous, vous) always take être in the passé composé, so the participle agrees with the subject:
Order matters: the reflexive pronoun comes before the helper (me suis, not suis me). Every "washing / getting up / going to bed" verb from cluster 3 works this way in the past.
To make the passé composé negative, the ne … pas wraps around the helper, not the participle:
Key point: the pas sits after the helper and before the participle — n'ai pas mangé, not n'ai mangé pas. The two negative words hug the little helper verb.
Now combine everything — pick the right helper, form the participle, and (with être) make it agree:
Your checklist: (1) which helper — avoir or être? (2) what is the participle — regular or irregular? (3) with être, does it need -e / -s / -es? Run through these three and you will not go wrong.
Formula: present of avoir or être + past participle = a completed past action ("I ate / have eaten").
Regular participles: -er → -é (parlé), -ir → -i (fini), -re → -u (vendu).
Key irregulars: avoir→eu, être→été, faire→fait, prendre→pris, mettre→mis, voir→vu, boire→bu, lire→lu, écrire→écrit, dire→dit, venir→venu, vouloir→voulu, pouvoir→pu, devoir→dû.
Most verbs take avoir — participle stays plain (j'ai mangé, il a fait).
DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP verbs + all reflexives take être, and the participle agrees: il est allé, elle est allée, ils sont allés, elles sont allées; je me suis levé(e).
Next you'll contrast this with the imperfect. Press Finish to see your score.
You've built the perfect tense (le passé composé) for Cambridge IGCSE French. 🎉
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Next in the spine: Perfect & imperfect — when to use each past tense. Then lock this in with the Evaluate confidence quiz.