Passé Composé

one of several past tenses in French

used for PAST, COMPLETED actions

compound tense...uses AUXILIARY (helping) verb and PAST PARTICIPLE

AUXILIARY VERB (helping verb):

usually AVOIR, conjugated to match subject

also can be ETRE, conjugated to match subject

ne É pas goes around auxiliary verb, not participle

PAST PARTICIPLE (-ED form):

doesn't agree with subject (avoir verbs)

formation of past participle

ER verbs - drop ER, add é

parler - parlé

RE verbs - drop RE, add u

rendre - rendu

IR verbs - drop IR, add I

sortir - sorti

MEANING:

Ils ont oublié	J'ai parlé
They forgot	I spoke
They did forget	I did speak
They have forgotten	I have spoken

Passé Composé of Irregular verbs

Most use avoir as the auxiliary verb.

Past participles

avoir	eu
aller (uses être)	allé
être	été
faire	fait
mettre	mis
croire	cru
lire	lit
pouvoir	pu
recevoir	reçu
savoir	su
prendre	pris
vivre	veçu
dire	dit
écrire	écrit
voir	vu
vouloir	voulu
boire	bu
venir	venu
connaître	connu
verbs ending in -uire	-uit
verbs ending in -indre	-int