French lesson 7 notes

 

    7. J’aime lire

Grammaire – Passé composé with être

A.    Passé composé with ‘être’

Subject + conjugation of être + past participle

·        The verbs which get conjugated with être are following

DR MRS VANDERTRAMPP

           

	verb	meaning	Past participle
D	descendre	To climb down	descendu
R	rentrer	To go back home	rentré
M	monter	To climb up	monté
R	retourner	To return	retourné
S	sortir	To go out	sorti
V	venir	To come	venu
A	arriver	To arrive	arrivé
N	naître	To be born	né
D	devenir	To become	devenu
E	entrer	To enter	entré
R	revenir	To come back	revenu
T	tomber	To fall down	tombé
R	rester	To stay	resté
A	aller	To go	allé
M	mourir	To die	mort
P	passer	To pass	passé
P	partir	To leave	parti

 

Apart from these 17 verbs all the pronominal verbs are conjugated with être.

When a verb is conjugated with être, past participle gets extra e/s/es as per the subject.

B.    Past Participles

1)    ER verbs – to form the p.p. remove R from the verb and write é at the end.

e.g. chanter –chanté

regarder – regardé

2)    IR verbs – just remove R from the end and the remaining verb is p.p.

e.g. finir – fini

remplir –rempli

3)    Other past participlesare mostly irregular.

verb	Past participle	verb	Past participle
1.avoir	eu	23. conduire	conduit
2. boire	bu	24. dire	dit
3. connaître	connu	25. écrire	écrit
4. courir	couru	26.faire	fait
5. croire	cru	27. ouvrir	ouvert
6. devoir	dû	28. être	été
7. falloir	fallu	29. envoyer	envoyé
8. lire	lu	30. neiger	neigé
9. paraître	paru	31. mettre	mis
10. plaire	plu	32. prendre	pris
11. pleuvoir	plu
12.pouvoir	pu
13. savoir	Su
14. tenir	tenu
15. vivre	vécu
16.recevoir	reçu
17. voir	vu
18. vouloir	voulu
19. rire	ri
20. suivre	suivi
21. dormir	dormi
22.sourire	souri

 

C.    Transitive and intransitive verbs

Refer the table of DR MRS VANDERTRAMPP. Some verbs are highlighted. They are both transitive and intransitive.

a)     Transitive verb – when a verb has a direct object i. e. it is followed by an object, it is transitive.

e.g.  1) Je descends ma valise. (I take down my suitcase.)

          2) Il sort son chien. (he takes out his dog)

In this case it is conjugated with avoir and not être. So passé composé is            J’ai descendu ma valise.

               Il a sorti son chien.

b)    Intransitive verb – when a verb does not have a direct object i.e. it is followed by a preposition, it is intransitive.

e.g.         1) Je sors chaque samedi. (I go out every Saturday.)

                2) Il descend par l’asensceur. (He goes down by lift.)

In this case passé composé is done with être.

             Je suis sorti chaque samedi.

             Il est descendu par l’asensceur.

Remember when you are conjugating a transitive verb from the list of 17 verbs its past participle doesn’t get extra e/s/es as per the subject but remains same all the time.