Passé composé French Compound Past Tense

The  passà © composà © is the most common French past tense, often used in conjunction with the imperfect. It is extremely important to understand the  distinctions between past tenses  in order to use them correctly and thus express past events accurately. Before you can compare them, however, be sure that you understand each tense individually, as this will make it a lot easier to figure out how they work together. Generally speaking, the imperfect  describes past situations, while the passà © composà ©Ã‚  narrates specific events. The passà © composà © can express any of the examples below, which range from completed actions in the past to actions repeated multiple times in the past, and even a series of actions completed in the past. Completed Actions Some actions are started and completed in the past, as these examples show. As-tu à ©tudià © ce weekend ?:  Did you study this weekend?Ils ont dà ©jà   mangà ©:  they have already eaten Previous Repetitive Actions At other times, an action might be repeated multiple times in the past. Oui, jai mangà © cinq fois hier:  Yes, I did eat five times yesterdayNous avons visità © Paris plusieurs fois:  weve visited Paris several times Completed Series of Actions You can also express a series of actions fully completed in the past with the  passà © composà ©. Quand je ​suis arrivà ©, jai vu les fleurs:  When I arrived, I saw the flowersSamedi, il a vu sa mà ¨re, a parlà © au mà ©decin et a trouvà © un chat:  Saturday, he saw his mother, talked to the doctor, and found a cat Tips for Using Passà © Composà © The passà © composà © has three possible English equivalents. For example, jai dansà © can mean: I danced (simple past)I have danced (present perfect)I did dance  (past emphatic) The passà © composà ©Ã‚  is a  compound conjugation, which means it has two parts: present tense  of the  auxiliary verb  (either  avoir  or  Ãƒ ªtre)past participle  of the main verb Like all compound conjugations, the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  may be subject to  grammatical  agreement: When the auxiliary verb is  Ãƒ ªtre, the  past participle  must agree with the subjectWhen the auxiliary verb is  avoir, the past participle may have to agree with its  direct object. French Passà © Composà © Conjugations As noted, in French,  the passà © composà ©Ã‚  is made up of two parts. As the tables shows, the first part is the present tense of the verb avoir or à ªtre. The second part is called the  participe passà ©Ã‚  (past participle).  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹ Students of French should try  to  avoid the error of mixing up verbs which take avoir and à ªtre as an auxiliary verb in the past tense because it can lead to some awkward moments in a conversation. Learning the conjugations in the table should be helpful in that regard. Aimer  (avoir verb) j' ai aimà © nous avons aimà © tu as aimà © vous avez aimà © ilelle a aimà © ilselles ont aimà © Devenir  (à ªtre verb) je suis devenu(e) nous sommes devenu(e)s tu es devenu(e) vous à ªtes devenu(e)(s) il est devenu ils sont devenus elle est devenue elles sont devenues Se Laver  (pronominal verb) je me suis lavà ©(e) nous nous sommes lavà ©(e)s tu t'es lavà ©(e) vous vous à ªtes lavà ©(e)(s) il s'est lavà © ils se sont lavà ©s elle s'est lavà ©e elles se sont lavà ©es