passé composé avoir. basic formation the past tense in french is a compound tense, meaning it has...
TRANSCRIPT
Basic Formation• The past tense in French is a COMPOUND
tense, meaning it has 2 parts to the verb. It is not a simple tense, like present, that only has one part to the verb (EX: je regarde). The past tense, passé composé, is composed of a conjugation of avoir (this is called the auxillary or helping verb) plus a past participle.
Auxillary Verb – Avoir STEP ONE
• Do you remember the forms of avoir?
• J’ai• Tu as• Il/elle/on a• Nous avons• Vous avez• Ils/elles ont
Past Participle – REGULAR VERBS
STEP 2• 1. For verbs ending in –er, to make a past
participle, drop the –r and add an accent aigu to the e (é)– EX: regarder regardé
2. For verbs that end in –ir, simply drop the –r.
- EX: finir fini
3. For verbs that end in –re, drop the –re and add u.
- EX: perdre perdu
EXAMPLESWe watched TV last night.
Nous avons regardé la télé hier soir.
He finished his homework.Il a fini ses devoirs.
I lost the game.J’ai perdu le match.
NEGATION• To make a past tense verb negative,
put ne…pas or any other negative expression around the verb, which in past tense is the form of AVOIR.
EX: j’ai fini
Je ai finin’ pas
Question Formation• Questions in the past tense can be
done in 3 ways:• 1. Intonation – write it as a
statement, but your voice goes up at the end to ask the question:– EX: Tu as fini tes devoirs?
Est-ce que• 2. Use est-ce que at the beginning
of your sentence:– Est-ce que tu as fini tes devoirs?
Inversion• 3. Inversion – this is most common
in speech. Invert (flip-flop) the subject and the verb (form of avoir)
• EX: fini tes devoirs (statement)
• Inversion –
astu
- fini tes devoirs?