Passé Composé with être As we have already seen, in the passé composé, most verbs use avoir as the helping verb. However, some verbs use être instead.

Passé Composé with être

As we have already seen, in the passé composé, most verbs use avoir as the helping verb.

However, some verbs use être instead.

How to conjugate être in the present:

Je suis I am

Tu es You areIl/Elle/On est He/She/One is

Nous sommes We areVous êtes You are

Ils/Elles sont They are

The following verbs form the passé composé with être. It is easier to learn them as pairs:

• aller/venir to go/to come• arriver/partir to arrive/to leave• entrer/sortir to enter/to go out• monter/descendre to go up/to go down• naître/mourir to be born/to die

All the verbs made up of these verbs, e.g. rentrer, repartir, also use être, as do tomber, rester and retourner.

Irregular past participlesvenir naître mourir

The rest of the être verbs are regular.

venunémort

Il est né le 14 avril.

With verbs that use être as the helping verb, the past participle

agrees with the subject (the person or thing doing the action).

Add -e if the subject is feminineEntrer Elle est

entrée

Add -s if the subject is masculine plural (or

includes masculine and feminine)

Arriver Ils sont arrivés

Add –es if the subject is feminine plural

Partir elles sont parties

La forme négative

Je suis entré dans la salle de classe.

Je ne suis pas entré dans la salle de classe.

The “ne…pas” goes around the helping verb.