Passé Composé: Choosing Between Avoir and Être

The Default Choice: Most Verbs Use Avoir

The good news is that the vast majority of French verbs use avoir to form the passé composé. If you are ever in doubt, avoir is the most likely answer. This applies to thousands of verbs, including the most common ones you use every day.

Here are a few examples:

• J'ai mangé une pomme. (I ate an apple.)
• Nous avons fini nos devoirs. (We finished our homework.)
• Tu as vu le film ? (Did you see the movie?)
• Ils ont acheté une nouvelle voiture. (They bought a new car.)

The Special Cases: When to Use Être

While avoir is the default, a specific and important group of verbs uses être. These fall into two categories:

• A small group of verbs describing movement or a change of state.
• All pronominal verbs (verbs with se, like se lever or s'habiller).

Pronominal verbs are a topic of their own. They always use être in the passé composé, for example, Je me suis levé (I got up). This guide focuses on the non-pronominal verbs.

The Être Verbs of Movement and State Change

There are about 17 common verbs that use être. They often describe moving from one place to another or changing from one state to another (like birth or death). Many students remember them using the acronym DR MRS VANDERTRAMP. These verbs are:

• Devenir (to become)
• Revenir (to come back)
• Monter (to go up)
• Rester (to stay)
• Sortir (to go out)
• Venir (to come)
• Arriver (to arrive)
• Naître (to be born)
• Descendre (to go down)
• Entrer (to enter)
• Rentrer (to return home)
• Tomber (to fall)
• Retourner (to return)
• Aller (to go)
• Mourir (to die)
• Partir (to leave)
• Passer (to pass by)

For example: Il est allé au marché. (He went to the market.) Elle est née en 1990. (She was born in 1990.)

Agreement: The Most Important Difference

The biggest grammatical difference between using avoir and être is how the past participle agrees (or changes its ending).

With être, the past participle works like an adjective and must always agree in gender and number with the subject of the verb. Add an e for feminine subjects and an s for plural subjects.

• Masculine singular: Marc est parti. (Marc left.)
• Feminine singular: Marie est partie. (Marie left.)
• Masculine plural: Marc et Paul sont partis. (Marc and Paul left.)
• Feminine plural: Marie et Anne sont parties. (Marie and Anne left.)

With avoir, the past participle almost never agrees with the subject. It only agrees with a direct object if that object comes *before* the verb. This happens most often with pronouns like le, la, les or the relative pronoun que.

• No agreement: J'ai mangé la pomme. (I ate the apple.) The object la pomme is after the verb.
• Agreement: La pomme que j'ai mangée. (The apple that I ate.) The object que (referring to la pomme) is before the verb.
• No agreement: J'ai vu les filles. (I saw the girls.)
• Agreement: Je les ai vues. (I saw them.)

Understanding direct object pronouns is key to mastering agreement with avoir. We cover them in a separate guide.

Verbs That Use Both Avoir and Être

To make things interesting, a few of the être verbs can switch to avoir. This happens when the verb is used with a direct object. The meaning changes slightly: instead of the subject performing the action, the subject performs the action *on an object*.

Forming Negations and Questions

Placing negation is straightforward. The ne...pas structure wraps around the auxiliary verb (avoir or être). If object pronouns are present, they stay attached to the auxiliary verb inside the negation.

• Je n'ai pas mangé. (I did not eat.)
• Elle n'est pas arrivée. (She has not arrived.)
• Je ne l'ai pas vu. (I did not see him/it.)

For formal questions, you can invert the subject and the auxiliary verb:

• As-tu fini ? (Have you finished?)
• Est-elle venue ? (Did she come?)

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Forgetting agreement with être. Always check if your subject is feminine or plural. It's elles sont allées, not elles sont allé.
• Incorrectly agreeing with avoir. Do not make the past participle agree with the subject. It's elle a mangé, not elle a mangée.
• Confusing movement verbs. Some verbs imply movement but still use avoir. For example: marcher (to walk), courir (to run), sauter (to jump), visiter (to visit), and voyager (to travel). J'ai beaucoup voyagé (I have traveled a lot).
• Using the wrong auxiliary for verbs that switch. When sortir means 'to take something out', it needs avoir. Saying Je suis sorti les poubelles is incorrect; it must be J'ai sorti les poubelles.

Quick self-check

1. Which auxiliary verb does partir (to leave) use and why?

   Show answer

   Partir uses être because it is one of the core verbs of movement. For example: Nous sommes partis à 8h. (We left at 8am.)

2. How would you correct this sentence: Les chansons que j'ai écouté sont belles.?

   Show answer

   The correct sentence is Les chansons que j'ai écoutées sont belles. The past participle must agree with the preceding direct object que (which stands for les chansons, feminine plural).

3. When does the verb passer use avoir instead of être?

   Show answer

   Passer uses avoir when it has a direct object and means 'to spend' (time) or 'to take' (an exam). For example: J'ai passé un examen. (I took an exam.) It uses être to mean 'to pass by'.

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