French/Grammar/Tenses/Present perfect

The passé composé is a perfect tense, and is therefore composed of an auxiliary verb and a past participle. With most verbs, that auxililary verb is avoir.

Meaning
Verbs in French conjugated in the passé composé can most simply be translated to English as eg "has / have ____ed". While there is a simple past tense in French, it is mostly used in formal narrative writing, so verbs conjugated in the passé composé can also be used to mean the English simple tense.
 * For example, the passé composé form of parler (to speak), [avoir] parlé, literally means has/have spoken, but also means spoke. In French, the passé composé covers "I ate", "I did eat" and "I have eaten" - J'ai mangé.

When to use
You use the passé composé when you want to express that:
 * 1) Something has been completed in the past.
 * 2) Something was done a certain amount of times in the past. (if the something was ongoing, the imparfait should be used)
 * 3) A series of somethings was completed in the past.

Introduction
To conjugate a verb in the passé composé, the auxiliary (or helping) verb, usually avoir, is conjugated in the present indicative and the past participle is then added. It is important to remember that there is only *one* verb in the passé composé. While the past participle looks like a verb, it is not - it functions more like an adjective. This is important to remember because when you negate in the passé composé, you negate the only verb, which is the auxiliary verb (ex. "Je n'ai pas mangé"; "I have not eaten"). This works exactly the same way in English - the only verb is the auxiliary verb, which is also the only thing negated in English ("I have not eaten").

Formation Summary
The compound past is a compound tense- it consists of two verbs, the auxiliary verb ("helper verb") and the past participle of the verb one seeks to use in this tense.

To form the passé composé, you need to take the auxiliary verb - either avoir or être, then conjugate it according to the subject of the sentence, like in the present indicative tense. We then take the past participle of the verb, and stick that on the end. Every verb has one past participle that does not change (there are some exceptions, as one will learn later). To find the past participle, the stem of the infinitive must be determined or the irregularity must be known.

If we want to make the statement negative, for example if we didn't do something in the past, we must always put the negative structure such as ne ... pas around the auxiliary verb, immediately before the past participle. For example, "Je ne peux pas",.

Also, reflexive or pronomial verbs must be conjugated with être under most circumstances. For example, the verb "se réflechir" is conjugated in the first person singular by "Je me suis réflechi(e),".

Auxiliary Verb Formation

 * The auxiliary verb is always either avoir or être.
 * In the passé composé, for example, the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the present indicative.
 * With Avoir: J'ai fini. - I have finished or I finished.
 * With Être: Je suis allé. - I went.

Auxiliary Verb - Avoir
Conjugate avoir in the present indicative.

Auxiliary Verb - Être
Conjugate être in the present indicative.

Past Participle Formation

 * -er verbs - replace -er with é
 * -ir verbs - replace -ir with i
 * -re verbs - replace -re with u
 * irregular verbs - must be memorized

Être + Past Participle

 * Note that for the starred vous form, the S (which is always added for nous and ils/elles) is not added if the vous is simply denoting the singular, formal you.

Past Participle Agreement with Preceding Direct Objects
The past participle must agree with the direct object of a clause in gender and plurality if the direct object goes before the verb.
 * the direct object is masculine singular - no change
 * J'ai fini le jeu. - I have finished the game.
 * Je l'ai fini. - I have finished it.
 * the direct object is feminine singular - add an e to the past participle
 * J'ai fini la tâche. - I have finished the task.
 * Je l'ai finie. - I have finished it.
 * the direct object is masculine plural - add an s to the past participle.
 * J'ai fini les jeux. - I have finished the games.
 * Je les ai finis. - I have finished them.
 * the direct object is feminine plural - add an es to the past participle.
 * J'ai fini les tâches. - I have finished the tasks.
 * Je les ai finies. - I have finished them.

Avoir ou Être?
In most circumstances, the auxiliary verb is avoir. However, with certain verbs, the auxiliary verb is être. This occurs under two different circumstances:

1. Reflexive verbs always take être.
 * This distinguishes them from verbs with preceding objects pronouns.


 * {| class="wikitable"

! colspan=2| Reflexive Verbs vs. Verbs with Preceding Object Pronouns
 * Je me suis parlé.||I spoke to myself.
 * Il ma parlé.'||He spoke to me.
 * }
 * Il ma parlé.'||He spoke to me.
 * }

2. The House of Être: Most verbs form the passé composé with avoir, however there are a small number of verbs that are always conjugated with être. Seventeen special intransitive verbs take être (four of which can also take avoir, as explained below).


 * A useful mnemonic to help you remember these is "DR.MRS.VANDERTRAMPP". Because all of these verbs except mourir, naître and rester are also verbs of movement (but be careful! not all movement verbs take être!), many also find it useful to draw a house with the verbs being acted out ("The House of Être").

2.a. Exceptions Note that there are four verbs above that are followed by a star (sortir, descendre, monter, passer). When a direct object is used with these verbs, the auxiliary verb becomes avoir.

Francés/Gramática/El verbo/Tiempos/Le passé composé