Bonjour! My name is David! Welcome! Follow me on In this lesson you will learn all about French verbs which are conjugated with être (to be) in the past tense or passé composé. First watch this movie then learn more with the explanations below. You can also check out this Mrs. Vandertramp song video to help you learn.
Most French verbs use avoir as the auxiliary verb in the past tense. For example, in “nous avons mangé” avons is the ancillary verb and mangé is the past participle.
However, there are several verbs that use the verb être (to be) as the past tense auxiliary verb. For example, in “Nous sommes allés (we went) sommes is the auxiliary verb and allés is the past participle.
Furthermore, in the past tense verbs using être must have the subject and past participle agree in both gender and number. Here are some examples:
il est allé
he went
Elle est allée
She went
They went (group of men only or men + women)
ils sont allés
They went (group of women)
Elles sont allées
The list of verbs which are conjugated with être is as follows. Luckily the list is not too long. However, it is important to learn as being able to distinguish between être and avoir firms in the past tense you want to sound fluent in French. Notice that most of the verbs all have to do with coming and going. Hence just by studying the nature of these verbs you should be able to get a grasp of when you need to use être in the past tense or not. Here are the
List of être verbs:
Aller = to go
Arriver = to arrive
Decendre = to do down
Entrer = to enter
Monter = to climb
Mourir = to die
Naître = to be born
Partir = to leave
Passer = to pass
Rester = to stay
Retourner = to return
Sortir = to go out
Tomber = to fall
Venir = to come
Devenir = to become
Revenir = to come back
Now we will go through some example sentences. I have written a clearly different forms for different people so that you can get a sense of when you need to make the gender and numbers of the past participles matched the subjects. As an exercise you could also go ahead and make some sentences of your own after watching the video above. Also, note that in the sentences below the form for “Je” is always masculine because I am speaking for myself. If you are a woman
and speaking in the first person “je” form then you must add 1/8 the end of the past participle in order to make the subject and past participle matching gender.
Practice Sentences
Arriver – To Arrive
Je suis arrivé.
I arrived.
Elle est arrivée.
She arrived.
ils sont arrivés
They arrived. (men + women or men only)
Elles sont arrivées.
They arrived. (Women only)
Venir – To Come
Je suis venu.
I came.
Elle est venue.
She came.
ils sont venus.
They came. (men + women or men only)
Elles sont venues.
They came. (women only)
Rester – To Stay
Je suis resté.
I stayed.
Elle est restée.
She stayed.
Nous sommes restés.
We stayed. (men + women or men only)
ils sont restés.
They stayed. (men + women or men only)
Elles sont restées.
They stayed. (women only)
Tomber – To Fall
Je suis tombé.
I fell.
Elle est tombée.
She fell.
Nous sommes tombés.
We fell. (men + women or men only)
ils sont tombés.
They fell. (men + women or men only)
Elles sont tombées.
They fell. (women only)
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