Le passé composé is the all-encompassing and most commonly used French past tense. For instance, j'ai couru translates directly into 'I ran'; 'I have ran' and 'I did run'. The 'compound past' is simply made up of two parts: the helping verb, which expresses that an action 'has' occured, and the past participle of the action verb that 'happened' - as explained fully below.

Le Passé Composé | Compund Past Tense

1. General Use

The passé composé is used to express:

1. An action or event completed in the past

   Je suis allé à la boîte de nuit la nuit dernière
   I went clubbing last night
   J'ai dansé trop!
   I danced too much!
   As-tu travaillé ce week-end?
   Did you work this weekend?
   J'ai été au bal
   I was at a ball
   Je me suis couché de bonne heure hier soir
   I went to sleep early last night

   
   
2. An action or event repeated a number of times in the past

   Elle a visité Cannes plusieurs fois
   She's visited Cannes several times
   J'ai étudié le français pendant cinq ans
   I studied French for five years
   J'ai vu ce film cinq fois
   I saw that film five times
   J'ai été à leur maison seulement deux fois
   I've only been to their house twcie

2. Formation

Of the two helping verbs used in French, avoir (to have) is the most used; however, all reflexive verbs and some 'verbs of motion' - like arriver (to arrive) and partir (to leave) - use être (to be). Both 'helpers' are conjugated in their present tense forms.

Alors, we're nearly there! To form le passé composé you first must choose the correct 'helper verb' then add the past participle of the verb that 'happened' by dropping the infinitive ending (-er, -ir, -re) and adding the appropriate ending, as outlined below.

Here's a handy, tried and tested mnemonic to help you recall the most common verbs that require être to form le passé composé:

* irregular - par example:
      je suis venu not je suis veni
      je suis né not je suis naîtu etc.

A last word on être, those 'helping verbs' must always agree in number (singular or plural [add s]) and gender (masculine or feminine [add e] with the subject. For example sortir: je suis sorti (m.), je suis sortie (f.) and ils sont sortis (m.), elles sont sorties (f.).

Le passé composé of irregular verbs is formed by adding an irregular past participle to the conjugated verb. For simplicity, here are a few of the most commonly used: