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Lesson 2 of 5Raconter: Past, Present and Future
Unit 3 · Lesson 2 of 5

The Passé Composé with Être

About twenty common verbs of movement and change, plus every reflexive verb, form the passé composé with être instead of avoir, and their past participle agrees with the subject like an adjective: elle est partie, ils sont arrivés.

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Key things to remember

  1. 1The house verbs use être: aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber, retourner, rentrer, devenir, revenir.
  2. 2Every reflexive verb uses être: je me suis levé(e), elle s'est amusée.
  3. 3With être, the participle agrees with the subject: add -e for feminine, -s for plural, -es for feminine plural; a mixed group is masculine plural.
  4. 4Participles to watch in this group: né (naître), mort (mourir) and venu, devenu, revenu (the venir family); descendre is regular: descendu.
  5. 5Ne … pas wraps the auxiliary (and any reflexive pronoun): elle n'est pas venue, je ne me suis pas levé.

In the last lesson you built the passé composé with avoir. A small but very common group of verbs uses être as the auxiliary instead: je suis allé (I went), elle est arrivée (she arrived), nous sommes rentrés (we came home). These are mostly verbs of movement (going, coming, entering, leaving, going up, going down) and change of state (being born, dying, becoming), and none of them, in this use, takes a direct object. Why être? Think of what the sentence describes: il est parti is close to English he is gone — it tells you the state the subject is in after the action. Because the participle behaves like a description of the subject, it agrees with the subject, exactly like an adjective after être: elle est contente → elle est partie. You will use these verbs constantly when you tell any story: where you went, when you arrived, when you got home, what time you got up.

la maison d'êtrethese verbs use être, not avoirnaître → néto be bornmourir → mortto diemonter → montédescendre → descendugo up / go downrester → restéto stayarriver → arrivépartir → partivenir → venurevenir → revenudevenir → devenucome · come back · becomeentrer → entrésortir → sortialler → alléretourner → retournérentrer → rentrétomber → tombéto fallpasser (par) → passéto go by, to go throughThe participle agrees with the subject: elle est allée (+e) · ils sont partis (+s) · elles sont venues (+es)All reflexive verbs use être too: je me suis levé(e) · elle s'est levéeAlmost every other verb uses avoir: j'ai mangé, nous avons fini.
Fig 1The house of être: picture arriving at and leaving the house, going in and out the door, up and down the stairs, falling from the roof, staying inside, being born and dying. Every reflexive verb uses être too.

The être verbs

InfinitiveParticipleMeaningIts opposite
alleralléto govenir → venu (to come)
arriverarrivéto arrivepartir → parti (to leave)
entrerentréto enter, go insortir → sorti (to go out)
montermontéto go up, get ondescendre → descendu (to go down, get off)
naîtrenéto be bornmourir → mort (to die)
resterrestéto stay—
tombertombéto fall—
retournerretournéto go back, return—
devenir / revenir / rentrerdevenu / revenu / rentréto become / to come back / to go back home—
Learning them in pairs of opposites helps: if aller takes être, so does venir. Only né and mort are really irregular; venu, devenu, revenu and descendu end in -u, parti and sorti end in -i, and the rest follow the regular é pattern.
Two ways to remember the list
The house: each verb is something you can do to a house (see the figure). DR and MRS VANDERTRAMP: each letter starts one verb — Devenir, Revenir, Monter, Rester, Sortir, Venir, Aller, Naître, Descendre, Entrer, Rentrer, Tomber, Retourner, Arriver, Mourir, Partir. Pick whichever sticks. Either way, the core rule is short: these sixteen verbs (and relatives such as remonter or repartir) plus every reflexive verb take être; almost everything else takes avoir. Passer also takes être when it means to go by or to go through (see the warning below), which is why the figure includes it.

Agreement: the participle matches the subject

SubjectÊtre (présent)ParticipleEnglish
jesuisallé / alléeI went (male / female speaker)
tuesallé / alléeyou went
ilestalléhe went
elleestalléeshe went
noussommesallés / alléeswe went
vousêtesallé(e) / allés / alléesyou went (one person, polite / several people)
ilssontallésthey went (males or a mixed group)
ellessontalléesthey went (all female)
Add -e for a feminine subject, -s for a plural subject, -es for a feminine plural subject. With je, tu, nous and vous, the ending depends on who is actually speaking or being spoken to.
How to decide the ending
Ask two questions about the subject: is it feminine, and is it plural? Julie est partie (+e). Mes frères sont partis (+s). Mes sœurs sont parties (+es). A mixed group is masculine plural: Paul et Léa sont partis. Vous used politely to one woman gives vous êtes partie; to a group of women, vous êtes parties. Most of these endings are silent, so agreement is mainly a writing skill — with one audible exception among the house verbs: il est mort (no t sound) versus elle est morte (you hear the t).

Reflexive verbs also use être

SubjectSe lever (to get up)English
jeme suis levé(e)I got up
tut'es levé(e)you got up
il / elles'est levé / levéehe / she got up
nousnous sommes levé(e)swe got up
vousvous êtes levé(e)(s)you got up
ils / ellesse sont levés / levéesthey got up
Order: subject, reflexive pronoun, être, participle. Me, te and se become m', t' and s' before the vowel of es and est. The participle agrees with the subject, as with the house verbs.

This means your whole daily routine from Unit 2 can now be told in the past: Ce matin, je me suis réveillée à six heures, je me suis habillée et je me suis dépêchée (This morning, I woke up at six, I got dressed and I hurried — a female speaker). One exception you will study in Grade 10: when a body part follows the verb, the participle does not agree — elle s'est brossé les dents (she brushed her teeth).

  • Negative: ne … pas wraps the auxiliary, and with a reflexive verb it wraps the pronoun too: Elle n'est pas venue. (She didn't come.) Je ne me suis pas levé tôt. (I didn't get up early.)
  • Question: Est-ce que tu es sorti hier soir ? (Did you go out last night?) À quelle heure est-ce qu'ils sont arrivés ? (What time did they arrive?)
When a house verb takes avoir
Monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer and passer use avoir when they have a direct object, because then they no longer describe the subject moving: Il est sorti. (He went out.) but Il a sorti son téléphone. (He took out his phone.) Je suis passé par Ottawa. (I went through Ottawa.) but J'ai passé un bon week-end. (I spent a good weekend.) At Grade 9 level, recognise this pattern; the default for these verbs on their own is être.
In context: a message after a weekend in Québec
Salut Inès ! Vendredi soir, ma famille et moi, nous sommes partis de Toronto en train. Nous sommes arrivés à Québec samedi matin. Ma sœur et moi, nous sommes allées dans le Vieux-Québec et nous sommes restées là-bas tout l'après-midi. Mon frère n'est pas venu avec nous : il est tombé dans l'escalier de l'hôtel, alors il est resté dans la chambre ! Le soir, je me suis couchée très tard. Dimanche, nous sommes rentrés à Toronto. Bisous, Maya

Translation: Hi Inès! On Friday evening, my family and I left Toronto by train. We arrived in Québec City on Saturday morning. My sister and I went to Old Québec and we stayed there all afternoon. My brother didn't come with us: he fell on the hotel stairs, so he stayed in the room! In the evening, I went to bed very late. On Sunday, we went back home to Toronto. Hugs, Maya. Follow the agreement: the whole family is a mixed group, so partis, arrivés, rentrés (masculine plural); Maya and her sister are two girls, so allées, restées (feminine plural); her brother gives venu, tombé, resté; Maya herself is female, so je me suis couchée.

AAvoir verbs
  • Most verbs, plus a house verb that has a direct object (il a sorti son téléphone)
  • No agreement with the subject: elles ont mangé
  • J'ai fait, j'ai vu, j'ai pris, j'ai eu, j'ai été
BÊtre verbs
  • The 16 house verbs (DR and MRS VANDERTRAMP) and every reflexive verb
  • The participle agrees with the subject: elles sont arrivées
  • Je suis allé(e), je suis né(e), je me suis levé(e)

Worked examples

Reveal one step at a time and try to beat it to the next line.

Example 1
Translate: My sister arrived at eight o'clock.
Example 2
Translate: Paul and Léa went out on Saturday.
Example 3
A girl writes: I got up late this morning.
Example 4
Make negative: Elles sont venues à la fête.

Where marks get lost

  • Using avoir with a house verb: J'ai allé au cinéma. Correct: Je suis allé(e) au cinéma.
  • Forgetting agreement: Elle est parti. With être the participle matches the subject: Elle est partie.
  • Making a mixed group feminine: Marc et Sophie sont arrivées. One masculine member makes it masculine plural: arrivés.
  • Dropping the reflexive pronoun in the past: Je suis levé à sept heures. Keep it: Je me suis levé à sept heures.
  • Using the regular pattern for naître and mourir: elle est naîtrée, il est mouru. Correct: elle est née, il est mort.

Flashcards 9

Which verbs use être in the passé composé?
DR and MRS VANDERTRAMP
Participle of naître, mourir
Participle of venir, descendre
+ 5 more

Practice

1
Which auxiliary does tomber (to fall) use in the passé composé?
2
Write the passé composé of arriver (auxiliary + participle): Ma cousine ___ hier soir.
3
Write the passé composé of venir (auxiliary + participle): Mes tantes ___ pour mon anniversaire.
4
Choose the correct form: Nicolas et Amélie sont ___ au parc.
5
Which sentence is correct?
6
Write the passé composé of se lever (pronoun + auxiliary + participle): Ce matin, Léa ___ à sept heures.
7
Match each infinitive to its past participle.
naître
mourir
descendre
devenir
sortir
8
Put the words in order: They (girls) didn't go out.
  1. 1sorties.
  2. 2pas
  3. 3sont
  4. 4Elles
  5. 5ne
9
A girl is speaking. Write the passé composé of rester (auxiliary + participle): Hier, je ___ à la maison.
10
Which sentence uses the wrong auxiliary?
11
You are speaking politely (vous) to one woman, Madame Diallo. Which is correct?

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