le passé composé
lesson trois

Before I begin my substansive material, I'd just like to add that rentrer is another verb that uses 'etre'. I knew there were seventeen!

Okay, now for the weird verbs that can use either etre or avoir.
Some include:
descendre
monter
passer
sortir

Basically, the form is pronoun - auxiliary - past participle - and then either a noun or an adverb or something else. If it's a noun, you use avoir. If it's anything else, you use etre.
eg.
j'ai passé un bon weekend (because un bon weekend is a noun)
je suis passé a la maison (she passed BY the house - by =/= a noun)
il est descendu (he came down - movement)
il a descendu l'escalier (l'escalier = noun)

Not great examples, but that's how it goes! The textbook is very good.

I should also hasten to add two more little things:

1. Reflexive verbs (verbs you do to yourself, weird as that sounds) always take etre. They must also agree.
eg. je me suis reveillée
il s'est habillé

2. Taking the negative in the passé composé is easy: pronoun - 'ne' - auxiliary - 'as' - past participle
eg. je ne suis pas reveillée tard
il n'a pas mangé le chocolat

3. If you give me your Geography notes, you can have my French ones.
They're a lot clearer and more conclusive than these!


G'luck, Claire.

--
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep

~THEDABANDNERDCLUB ~LesMisClub ~barricadeboys

le passé composé
lesson deux

There are seventeen (I lied the first time) verbs that use 'etre' as their auxiliary.
These are:
aller
arriver
descendre
devenir
entre
monter
mourir
naitre
retourner
rester
revenir
partir
passer
sortir
tomber
venir

eg. i went = je suis allé
he fell = je suis tombé
we stayed = nous sommes restés

NOW:
Verbs that use the auxiliary 'etre' must have their past participles agree with the noun.
If the noun is plural (nous, vous (plural), ils/elles) you add an 's' to the end of the word.
eg. nous sommes venus
If the noun is feminine (elle) you add another 'e' (no accent).
eg. elle est morte
If the noun is plural AND feminine (elles, nous, vous (plural)) you add another e and then an s.
eg. elles sont sorties
HOWEVER, if there is one man and two women, or one man and any number of women, the pronoun 'ils' is still use and hence only the 's' is added.
eg. Monsieur Dupont et 235972358 filles sont arrivés. Ils sont arrivés.
(No, I don't know where they arrived, and I don't want to know.)

However, some verbs can also use etre OR avoir, depending on the context.
These will be covered in Lesson Three.

--
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep

~THEDABANDNERDCLUB ~LesMisClub ~barricadeboys

okayokayokayclaire.
calm down.

le passé composé
lesson un

The past tense in French is called the 'assé composé'. This is because it is divided into three parts:

1. Pronoun (je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles)

2. Auxiliary
For avoir: (ai, as, a, avons, avez, ont)
For etre*: (suis, es, est, sommes, etes, sont)

3. Past participle
For -er verbs: take off the er and add é
For -ir verbs: take off the ir and add i
For -re verbs: take off the -re and add u


Now.
Most verbs use avoir as their auxiliary.
There are 23 verbs that use avoir but have irregular past participles
(eg. i was = j'ai été, i had = j'ai eu - i have a list of them in my notes)
BUT!
There are sixteen verbs that use 'etre' as their auxiliary.
These will be covered in Lesson 2.

--
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep

~THEDABANDNERDCLUB ~LesMisClub ~barricadeboys

ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

the nervous twitchings! the incoherent ramblings! the desperate lunges! oh the paaaaaaaain...

ps. we had cold turkey for dinner tonight.
what fun!

--
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep

~THEDABANDNERDCLUB ~LesMisClub ~barricadeboys