The French perfect and pluperfect tensesThe perfect tense with être
The perfect tense describes an action in the past that has finished. The pluperfect is used to talk about actions far back in the past such as events that have happened.
Some verbs use être as an auxiliary verbAuxiliary verbs support the main verb you want to write in a past tense. verb. They are usually verbs that involve movement, such as aller (to go), arriver (to arrive), sortir (to go out) and partir (to leave). reflexive verbThese are verbs where the action is done to the same person who is doing it, eg I wash myself. also use être.
The key elements needed to form the perfect tense with être are:
The subjectThe person or thing in the sentence that is doing the action. - je, tu, il, etc, or a name or a person or thing, eg Sophie/ma mère/mon livre.
The auxiliary verb - the present tense of être.
je suis
I am
tu es
you are
il/elle/on est
he/she/it is
nous sommes
we are
vous êtes
you are
ils/elles sont
they are
je suis
I am
tu es
you are
il/elle/on est
he/she/it is
nous sommes
we are
vous êtes
you are
ils/elles sont
they are
The past participleWords that express a completed action. They usually end in '-ed' in English, eg watched, danced, visited.
Regular past participles are formed by removing the infinitiveThe form of the verb that has not been conjugated and is usually translated with 'to' in English, for example 'to play'. ending -er, -ir or -re and adding -é, -i or -u.
Infinitive ending
Past participle ending
Example
-er
-é
aller (to go) – je suis allé (I went)
-ir
-i
sortir (to go out) – je suis sorti (I went out)
-re
-u
descendre (to go down) – il est descendu (he went down)
Infinitive ending
-er
Past participle ending
-é
Example
aller (to go) – je suis allé (I went)
Infinitive ending
-ir
Past participle ending
-i
Example
sortir (to go out) – je suis sorti (I went out)
Infinitive ending
-re
Past participle ending
-u
Example
descendre (to go down) – il est descendu (he went down)
Some verbs have irregularSomething that does not follow regular patterns and may have a different form. past participles:
Infinitive
Past participle
Example
venir - to come
venu
Il est (re)venu chez moi. – He came (back)to my house.
mourir - to die
mort
Il est mort en 1985. – He died in 1985.
naître - to be born
né
Elle est née au pays de Galles. – She was born in Wales.
Infinitive
venir - to come
Past participle
venu
Example
Il est (re)venu chez moi. – He came (back)to my house.
Infinitive
mourir - to die
Past participle
mort
Example
Il est mort en 1985. – He died in 1985.
Infinitive
naître - to be born
Past participle
né
Example
Elle est née au pays de Galles. – She was born in Wales.
The key difference between avoir verbs and the être verbs is that when using être, the past participle agrees with the subject of the verb, in gender and number:
Singular
Plural
Masculine
-
+ s
Feminine
+ e
+ es
Masculine
Singular
-
Plural
+ s
Feminine
Singular
+ e
Plural
+ es
For example:
Elle est allée à la banque. She went to the bank.
Ils sont sortis avec leurs copains. – They (masculine, or both masculine and feminine) went out with their friends.
