Passé composé and imparfait are the two main past tenses used in spoken French.
Here is how to conjugate and use them:
Passé composé
Form
To conjugate the passé composé, you need to conjugate either the avoir or être auxiliaries in the present tense and add the past participle.
Passé composé = avoir or être (in the present tense) + past participle
| Pronoms personnels | Avoir (to have) | Être (to be) | Aller (to go) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Je, j’ | ai eu | ai été | suis allé |
| Tu | as eu | as été | es allé |
| Il, elle, on | a eu | a été | est allé |
| Nous | avons eu | avons été | sommes allé |
| Vous | avez eu | avez été | êtes allé |
| Ils, elles | ont eu | ont été | sont allé |
| Pronoms personnels | 1er groupe | 2ème groupe | 3ème groupe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parler (to talk) | Finir (to finish) | Prendre (to take) | |
| Je, j’ | ai parlé | ai fini | ai pris |
| Tu | as parlé | as fini | as pris |
| Il, elle, on | a parlé | a fini | a pris |
| Nous | avons parlé | avons fini | avons pris |
| Vous | avez parlé | avez fini | avez pris |
| Ils, elles | ont parlé | ont fini | ont pris |
Use
We use the passé composé when we talk about an action in the past.
For example:
- J’ai fini mes devoirs hier. I finished my homework yesterday.
- On est allé à Paris l’année dernière. We went to Paris last year.
We use the avoir auxiliary with most verbs to conjugate the passé composé but some verbs need the être auxiliary, like verbs of motion and stative verbs in the list bellow:
| Verbes | Verbs |
|---|---|
| Naître/Mourir | To be born/To die |
| Aller/Venir | To go/To come |
| Revenir/Retourner/Rentrer | To come back/To go back |
| Monter/Remonter/Descendre/Redescendre | To climb/To go down |
| Arriver/Partir/Repartir | To arrive/To leave |
| Entrer/Sortir | To go in/To go out |
| Apparaître | To appear |
| Rester | To stay |
| Tomber/Retomber | To fall |
For example:
- Je suis resté là-bas deux heures. I stayed there for two hours.
Être is also used with reflexive verbs, for instance:
- Je me suis réveillé à 8h. I woke up at 8am.
The past participle ends in “é” for the verbs belonging to the first group like “parler”. For the second group like “finir”, it ends in “i”. It is more complicated for verbs belonging to the third group. Since they have different endings, you need to learn the past participle by heart.
The good thing is that some of the verbs belonging to the third group have the same ending.
For example:
- Verbs which have a past participle ending in “u“, such as vouloir, pouvoir, savoir, connaître, voir, croire, devoir, entendre, vendre, lire: voulu, pu, su, connu, vu, cru, dû, entendu, vendu, lu.
- Verbs which have a past participle ending in “is“, such as prendre, apprendre, comprendre: pris, appris, compris.
L’imparfait
Form
To conjugate the imparfait you need to take out of the infinitive the ending of the infinive and add the following endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
It is easier with verbs of the first group since you always taken out -er and add the ending of the imparfait like parler = je parlais
For the verbs of the second group you need to add iss like finir = je fin- iss – ais = je finissais
Lastly, for the verbs of the third group and for auxiliaries you need to learn them.
| Pronoms personnels | Avoir (to have) | Être (to be) | Aller (to go) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Je, j’ | avais | étais | allais |
| Tu | avais | étais | allais |
| Il, elle, on | avait | était | allait |
| Nous | avions | étions | allions |
| Vous | aviez | étiez | alliez |
| Ils, elles | avaient | étaient | allaient |
| Pronoms personnels | 1er groupe | 2ème groupe | 3ème groupe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parler (to talk) | Finir (to finish) | Prendre (to take) | |
| Je, j’ | parlais | finissais | prenais |
| Tu | parlais | finissais | prenais |
| Il, elle, on | parlait | finissait | prenait |
| Nous | parlions | finissions | prenions |
| Vous | parliez | finissiez | preniez |
| Ils, elles | parlaient | finissaient | prenaient |
Use
We use the imparfait to talk about our memories like for example:
- Quand j’étais jeune, j’avais un chat. When I was young, I had a cat.
Or to talk about something repetitive, like:
- Il y a 5 ans, tous les samedis matin j’allais à la boulangerie acheter des croissants. 5 years ago, every Saturday morning I was going to the bakery to buy some croissants.
Besides, we use the imparfait to describe a situation in the past. For instance:
- Je dormais (imparfait/description) quand mon chien m’a réveillé (passé composé/action). I was sleeping when my dog woke me up.
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