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- The perfect tenses are also called the compound or composed tenses.
- The perfect tenses are all composed of a conjugated auxiliary verb and a fixed past participle.
Auxiliary Verb Formation
edit- The auxiliary verb is always either avoir or être.
- The tense of the verb depends upon the tense that avoir or être is conjugated in.
- When the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the passé composé, for example, the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the present indicative.
- J'ai fini. - I have finished.
- When the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the passé composé, for example, the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the present indicative.
Past Participle Formation
edit- -er verbs - replace -er with é
- -ir verbs - replace -ir with i
- -re verbs - replace -re with u
- irregular verbs - must be memorized
Past Participle Agreement
editAudio: French native speaker
- The past pasticiple must agree with the direct object of a clause in gender and plurality if the direct object goes before the verb.
- the direct object is masculine singular - no change
- J'ai fini le jeu. - I have finished the game.
- Je l'ai fini. - I have finished it.
- the direct object is feminine singular - add an e to the past participle
- J'ai fini la tâche. - I have finished the task.
- Je l'ai finie. - I have finished it.
- the direct object is masculine plural - add an s to the past participle.
- J'ai fini les jeux. - I have finished the games.
- Je les ai finis. - I have finished them.
- the direct object is feminine plural - add an es to the past participle.
- J'ai fini les tâches. - I have finished the tasks.
- Je les ai finies. - I have finished them.
- the direct object is masculine singular - no change
Avoir ou Être?
edit- In most circumstances, the auxiliary verb is avoir.
- However, under certain situations, the auxiliary verb is être.
- This occurs when:
- The verb is one of 16 special verbs that take être.
- Arrivé, Allé, Venu, Devenu, Revenu, Entré, Rentré, Descendu, Retourné, Resté, Monté, Parti, Sorti, Tombé, Né, Mort.
- Note that when a direct object is used with these verbs, the auxiliary verb becomes avoir.
- The verb is reflexive.
- That is, the subject of the verb is also its object.
- The verb is one of 16 special verbs that take être.
List of Tenses
editThere are seven perfect tenses in French. These are:
- Le passé composé (The Present Perfect)
- Le plus-que-parfait de l'indicatif (The Pluperfect of the Indicative)
- Le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif (The Pluperfect Subjunctive)
- Le passé antérieur (The Past Anterior)
- Le futur antérieur (The Future Anterior)
- Le conditionnel passé (The Past Conditional)
- Le passé du subjonctif (The Past Subjunctive)
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