Most French verbs form the passé composé with avoir: j’ai mangé, tu as vu. A short, fixed list of verbs, mostly about movement or change of state, plus every reflexive verb, uses être instead: je suis allé, elle s’est levée. With être, the past participle agrees with the subject, like an adjective.
The passé composé covers both “I ate” and “I have eaten.” J’ai mangé à midi means “I ate at noon,” and J’ai déjà mangé means “I’ve already eaten.” In everyday speech there is no separate French form for the English simple past; the passé simple (il mangea) lives mostly in books and formal writing.
That overlap is exactly why English speakers default to avoir. “I have gone” has “have” in it, so “J’ai allé” feels logical. It is wrong: aller takes être, and the correct sentence is Je suis allé. The reverse calque happens too. “I am finished” becomes “Je suis fini,” which in French sounds like “I’m done for.” When you mean you have completed something, say J’ai fini.
Many American classrooms teach these with the house of être: picture a house and the things you can do in, out of, up and down it, plus being born and dying. The list is short enough to memorize as pairs of opposites.
| Infinitive | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| aller / venir | go / come | Je suis allé à Lyon. Elle est venue hier. |
| arriver / partir | arrive / leave | Nous sommes arrivés tard. Ils sont partis ce matin. |
| entrer / sortir | go in / go out | Tu es entré par la cuisine ? Elle est sortie avec des amis. |
| monter / descendre | go up / go down | Je suis monté au troisième étage. Il est descendu du train. |
| naître / mourir | be born / die | Mon fils est né en mars. Son grand-père est mort l’année dernière. |
| rester / tomber | stay / fall | Nous sommes restés à la maison. Elle est tombée dans l’escalier. |
| retourner / passer | go back / pass by | Ils sont retournés en Italie. Il est passé chez moi. |
| devenir / revenir / rentrer | become / come back / go home | Elle est devenue médecin. Je suis rentrée à minuit (a woman speaking). |
Do not reason from “movement” alone. Marcher, courir, nager, voyager and conduire all describe movement, and all take avoir: j’ai marché, j’ai couru, nous avons voyagé. The être verbs describe a change of place or state, not the activity of moving. Also watch prefixes: revenir and devenir follow venir, but prévenir (to warn) takes avoir: je l’ai prévenu.
Any verb used with a reflexive pronoun forms its passé composé with être: je me suis réveillé, elle s’est habillée, nous nous sommes promenés. Reciprocal verbs count too: ils se sont rencontrés à Paris, “they met in Paris.”
English hides the reflexive, which is where the mistake comes from. “I woke up” has no “myself,” so learners write J’ai réveillé à sept heures. That sentence is incomplete: réveiller with avoir needs an object, as in J’ai réveillé les enfants, “I woke the kids up.” For yourself, it is Je me suis réveillé à sept heures.
One refinement for later: when a reflexive verb is followed by its own direct object, the participle does not agree. Elle s’est lavée means “she washed,” but Elle s’est lavé les mains, “she washed her hands,” has no extra e, because the thing washed is les mains.
Several of the être verbs, the six below in particular, can also take a direct object, and then they use avoir. The meaning shifts from “going somewhere” to “moving something.” The test is simple: is there a what right after the verb?
| With être (no object) | With avoir (direct object) |
|---|---|
| Je suis sorti. (I went out.) | J’ai sorti le chien. (I took the dog out.) |
| Elle est montée. (She went up.) | Elle a monté les valises. (She carried the suitcases up.) |
| Nous sommes descendus. (We went down.) | Nous avons descendu l’escalier. (We went down the stairs.) |
| Il est rentré. (He came home.) | Il a rentré la voiture au garage. (He put the car in the garage.) |
| Ils sont passés par Lyon. (They went through Lyon.) | Ils ont passé une semaine à Nice. (They spent a week in Nice.) |
| Je suis retourné à Rome. (I went back to Rome.) | J’ai retourné la crêpe. (I flipped the crêpe.) |
Passer trips up travelers most. To say how long you spent somewhere, the time is a direct object, so it is always avoir: Nous avons passé trois jours à Paris, never Nous sommes passés trois jours.
With être, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number: il est arrivé, elle est arrivée, ils sont arrivés, elles sont arrivées. A mixed group takes the masculine plural. In speech, arrivé and arrivée sound the same, so this is mostly a spelling rule. It becomes audible when the participle ends in a consonant: il est mort, elle est morte.
Formal vous catches English speakers. Talking to one woman, a hotel clerk would say Madame, vous êtes arrivée hier ? The verb is plural in form, but the participle matches the real person: singular and feminine.
With avoir, the participle does not agree with the subject. Elle a mangé is correct; Elle a mangée is a common overcorrection. The one exception is a direct object placed before the verb: La lettre ? Je l’ai écrite. Here you can hear the t, and that is worth learning early with high-frequency verbs like faire, prendre, mettre and écrire.
In the passé composé, ne and pas surround the auxiliary, not the participle: Je ne suis pas allé, Je n’ai pas vu le film. English “I didn’t go” has no auxiliary to sandwich, so learners produce Je suis allé pas. Object pronouns and y or en also sit before the auxiliary: Je l’ai vu, Je lui ai parlé, J’y suis allé, J’en ai acheté. In questions, inversion flips the auxiliary and subject: Es-tu allé au marché ? As-tu fini ? In conversation, most people simply say Tu es allé au marché ?
The fastest way to make the choice automatic is to say it out loud: tell someone what you did yesterday, where you went, when you got home, what you saw. If you practice that daily with a tutor on PollyStop, the être verbs stop being a list and start sounding like the only possible option.
Être and avoir both form the passé composé with avoir: j’ai été, j’ai eu. Être is not on the list of verbs that use être as their auxiliary, even though it looks like it should be.
It covers the core verbs. Compounds such as revenir, devenir, rentrer, remonter and repartir follow the same pattern, and every reflexive verb takes être even though none appear on the list. Prévenir is the classic exception that takes avoir.
Usually not. Allé, allée and allés sound identical. You hear the agreement only when the participle ends in a consonant, as in mort and morte, écrit and écrite, or pris and prise.
Use the passé composé for completed events and the imparfait for background, ongoing states and habits. Il pleuvait quand je suis arrivé means it was raining, the background, when I arrived, the event.
