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We are going to be starting a new verb tense called the passé composé. This means we will be able to say what things happened in the past.
Ne vous inquiétez pas, mes amis les pingouins!	Le pingouin qui est frustré	Le pingouin qui est plus frustré
The first thing you need to know about the passé composé is that it uses the verb avoir. You need to remember this verb! Souvenez-vous?
cliquez!
Check out the chart below to conjugate the verb avoir correctly.

J'ai	Nous avons
Tu as	Vous avez
Il/Elle a	Ils/Elles ont

Excéllent! Now you are ready to conjugate your first verb in the passé composé!

Let's start with -er verbs. You need to first take the conjugations of avoir, just as we did previously. We then are going to take what is called the past participle. For regular -er verbs, all you have to do is drop the -er and add é.

Let's try the verb regarder: (to watch)

J'ai regardé	Nous avons regardé
Tu as regardé	Vous avez regardé
Il/Elle a regardé	Ils ont regardé

So what does this all mean? Keep in mind the verb avoir, which means to have. So the passé composé of regarder would mean watched.

Let's try a regular -ir verb. We still need to use the form of avoir, and to form the past participle for -ir verbs, you need to drop the -ir and add i.

Let's try the verb finir: (to finish)

J'ai fini	Nous avons fini
Tu as fini	Vous avez fini
Il/Elle a fini	Ils/Elles ont fini

So...........the passé composé of finir would mean... finished.

We are now going to work on -re verbs. To form the past participle for -re verbs, you need to drop the -re and add u.

Let's try the verb entendre: (to hear)

J'ai entendu	Nous avons entendu
Tu as entendu	Vous avez entendu
Il/Elle a entendu	Ils/Elles ont entendu

So this mean that the verb entendre means heard.

Now are you ready to try some activities to practice the passé composé?

on y va!

© 2007 - Jessica Longo