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Participe passé - Actif (Basic Format)

 

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Participe passé – actif (Basic format)

 

The Paricipe passé is one of the most versatile parts of the French verb system.

 

As will be shown below, it has many uses as a time-frame creator or as an adjective across the entire language!

 

Anyone who wishes to communicate skilfully in French can use the Participe passé as a shortcut to to reach greater French language abilities.

 

Let's begin by looking at a few examples in the table below: 

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Examples:

 

Examples of the Participe passé (p.p.) used as an adjective:

 

Example 1 (masculin singulier)

 

... le télécopieur réparé (participe passé – p.p. – as an adjective)

the repaired fax machine

 

Example 2 (masculin singulier)

 

... un message écrit (participe passé – p.p. – as an adjective)

a written message

 

Example 3 (féminin pluriel)

 

... des langues parlées (participe passé – p.p. – as an adjective)

(some) spoken languages

 

Example 4 (masculin / féminin – singulier / pluriel)

 

... parlé (e)(s) (participe passé – p.p. – as an adjective)

talked / spoken

 

Example 5 (masculin / féminin – singulier / pluriel)

 

... retourné(e)(s) (participe passé – p.p. – as an adjective)

returned

 

Examples of the Participe passé (p.p.) used to create compound tenses (Temps composés):

 

All Compound tenses and their formulas are available in alphabetical order on this site in the Verb Tense Index or using the link below:

Presented below are a few examples of Compound Tenses where the p.p. (participe passé) is used along with the two auxiliairy verbs "avoir" and "être".

 

Let's begin with a few examples of Compound Tenses using the auxiliaire "avoir")

 

Avoir parlé  (Infinitif passé – Section 14A)

Ayant parlé  (Participe passé composé – Section 17A)

J'ai parlé  (Passé composé – Section 20A)

Tu avais parlé  (Plus-que-parfait – Section 28A)

Nous aurions parlé  (Conditionnel passé – Section 1A)

 

and there are many more!

 

To see the complete list of the Active (Basic) form of all the 'Temps composés' on the site, click the link below:

Now let's look at a few examples of Compound Tenses with the auxiliaire "être":

 

Être retourné(e)(s) (Infinitif passé – Section 14A)

Étant retourné(e)(s) (Participe passé composé – Section 17A)

Je suis retourné(e) (Passé composé – Section 20A)

Tu étais retourné(e) (Plus-que-parfait – Section 28A)

Nous serions retourné(e)s (Conditionnel passé – Section 1A)

 

and there are many more …

 

To see the complete list of the Active (Basic) form of all the 'Temps composés' on the site, click the link below:

 For the complete range of compound tenses, simple tenses, hybrid tenses, and all their formulas, consult the Verb Tense Atlas here at verbexpress.net.

Now let's look more closely at the details concerning the French Participe passé:

  • The p.p. (Participe passé) can be used as a normal adjective.
  • The p.p. can be used with an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) to create compound verb tenses such as the Passé composé, the Plus-que-parfait, the Conditionnel passé, and others, all shown below.

 

Note: A detailed discussion about the agreement of the Participe passé with other words is provided in Appendix J - Participe passé Agreement)

The Participe passé is used extensively in creating French verb tenses. Throughout the site, I refer to the Participe passé in the formulas as the "p.p."

Now, please read the following discussion of the "Participe passé" attentively. It will help you to master French verb tenses faster and more easily.

We can think of the "Participe passé" as a verb which is adjusted to behave like an adjective which describes the finished "state" of something. Let's consider a few examples:

A"spoken" word - a word that has been spoken, a"written" letter - a letter that has been written, a"finished" product - a product that has been finished, and so on. As you can see, the flavor of the Participe passé is always finished, or completed.

The English version of the participe passé, called the "past participle", often—but not always—ends in "-ed" or "-en".

The p.p. of French verbs whose "Infinitif" ending is in "-er" is created by simply changing the "-er" into "-é". More examples below.

The "partcipe passé" is a verb "piece" used very often in French in combination with the verb "avoir" (to have) or the verb "être" (to be) to express where in the flow of time an action takes place.

In English, the "past participle" is also used with the verb "to have" for creating different time frames. Consider the following English examples of the verb "to have" with the English past participle of the verb to speak which is "spoken":

He will have spoken – He would have spoken – He had spoken, etc.

Let's look at a few more English examples:

 

A) Let's take a look at the verb "to listen". If I wish to express that a listening action was done by someone in the past, I can say "they have listened". I just add the letters "-ed" after the stem "listen". The English "p.p." is "listened'.

B) In the same way, the English "p.p." of "to talk" is "talked" (which we can use to create "they have talked"). Very many English verbs create their "p.p." by simply adding "-ed" after the verb stem. The "p.p." of "to walk" is "walked" (which we can use to create "I have walked"); the "p.p." of "to cry" is "cried" ("which can be used to create "You would have cried"); the "p.p." of "to paint" is "painted" (which we can use to create "He had painted"), etc.

C) Some English verbs are unpredictable, however, as shown by the following examples: the "p.p." of "to send" is "sent" (which we can use to create "We have sent"); the "p.p." of "to write" is "written" (which can be used to create "You have written") and the "p.p." of "to be" is "been" ("They have been"), etc.

Now, let's look at the same idea in French. As mentioned above, the p.p of "-er" verbs (verbs whose "Infinitif" ending  is "-er") is created by changing the "-er" ending into "-é".

The "-é" at the end of a verb in French is really the "-ed" or the "-en" (in most cases) at the end of a verb in English.

Let's look at the French versions of the same examples that we considered above.

 

Consider the verb "écouter" (to listen). The p.p. of the French verb "écouter" is "écouté", and means "listened".

The p.p. of the French verb "parler" (to talk) is "parlé", and means "talked or "spoken".

Likewise the p.p.s of the verbs "marcher" (to walk), "pleurer" (to cry), "peinturer" (to paint) and "envoyer" (to send) are "marché", "pleuré", "peinturé" and "envoyé" respectively.

Notice how the "-ed" (or "-en") English endings of the English past participles appear often (but not always, as shown below) in French as "-é" endings?

 

Although a huge number of French verbs follow the approach shown above for creating their p.p., there are still many verbs whose Infinitif ending is not '-er'.

Their p.p.s are created differently, and must be learned along the way.

To help speed up the learning of the various p.p.s, general guidelines for changing an "Infinitif" into a "p.p." are shown in the table below.

 

Exceptions: Avoir and Être

The p.p. of the auxiliary verb "avoir" is "eu"

The p.p. of the auxiliary verb "être" is "été".

 

Please rotate small devices horizontally to view the table below!

 

Infinitif endings

►

p.p.

Examples

"-er"

 usually becomes

"-é"

►

chanter, parler

►

chanté, parlé

"-ir"

 often becomes

"-i"

►

bâtir, finir, grandir, mentir

►

bâti, fini, grandi, menti

"-ire"

"

"-it"

►

écrire, frire

►

écrit, frit

"-uire"

"

"-uit"

►

conduire, produire

►

conduit, produit

"-ettre"

"

"-is"

►

mettre, permettre

►

mis, permis

"-aindre"

"

"-aint"

►

craindre, plaindre

►

craint, plaint

"-endre"

"

"-endu"

►

attendre, pendre, vendre

►

attendu, pendu, vendu

"-eindre"

"

"-eint"

►

atteindre, peindre

►

atteint, peint

"-dre"

"

"-du"

►

perdre, fondre

►

perdu, fondu

"-enir"

"

"-u"

►

venir

►

venu

"-oir"

"

"-u"

►

falloir, pouvoir, valoir

►

fallu, pu, valu

"-oire"

"

"-u"

►

boire

►

bu

"-frir"

"

"-fert"

►

offrir

►

offert

"-vrir"

"

"-vert"

►

ouvrir

►

ouvert

 

The Participe passé is used to create the following French compound tenses. Links are in parentheses:

Conditionnel passé

(Section 1A)

Impératif passé

(Section 12A)

Passé composé

(Section 20A)

Futur antérieur

(Section 3A)

Infinitif passé

(Section 14A)

Passé surcomposé

(Section 27A)

Futur antérieur au futur proche

(Section 4A)

Participe passé composé

(Section 17A)

Plus-que-parfait

(Section 28A)

Gérondif passé

(Section 8A)

Passé antérieur

(Section 19A)

Subjonctif passé

(Section 37A)

 

To know when to use avoir and when to use être, follow the guidelines below.

Further details are located in Appendix B - When to Use "être" and "avoir" to Create Compound Tenses

A)   Use the "auxiliaire être" when creating compound tenses (auxiliary + participe passé) with any of the verbs in what I call the Secret Travel Club (all of which describe movement through time or space, without drawing attention to the parts of the body, or the mode of transportation). They are listed in the table below, along with their respective "participe passé" in parentheses.

 

'Secret Travel Club' Verbs: (All meanings shown in Appendix B):

naître (né)

mourir (mort)

décéder (décédé)

aller (allé)

rester (resté)

retourner (retourné)

arriver (arrivé)

partir (parti)

repartir (reparti)

venir (venu)

revenir (revenu)

passer (passé)

repasser (repassé)

entrer (entré)

sortir (sorti)

rentrer (rentré)

ressortir (ressorti)

monter (monté)

descendre (descendu)

remonter (remonté)

redescendre (redescendu)

tomber (tombé)

retomber (retombé)

devenir (devenu)

redevenir (redevenu)

advenir (advenu)

survenir (survenu)

parvenir (parvenu)

intervenir (intervenu)

 

B)   We also use the "auxiliaire être" when making a compound tense in the pronominal format.

Many verbs can be used in both the non-pronominal format as well as the pronominal format (See Appendix D - Le Pronominal – The Pronominal Format for full discussion on the Pronominal format).

For example, the normal verb "laver" (to wash) can be used in the pronominal format as "se laver" (to wash oneself). In its non-pronominal format, the passé composé (Section 20A) of the verb laver with the subject "il" will be "il a lavé" (he washed), but in the pronominal format, we will use the auxiliary être instead, which will give "il s'est lavé (he washed himself).

To see the complete list of the Pronomial forms of all the 'Temps composés' on the site, click the link below:

C)   Use the "auxiliaire avoir" in all other cases.

IMPORTANT:    For every compound verb tense presented in this volume, each of the following forms is shown,

1)   The normal, or basic, format is presented using avoir,

2)   The Secret-Travel Club version is presented using être,

3)   The pronominal versions are also presented using être.

The chart below presents examples of each compound verb tense (again, a "compound tense" is the verb form that uses a combination of avoir (conjugated or not) or être (conjugated or not) and the Participe passé of the main verb.

Each one of them is presented here at verbexpress.net. (The link to each tense/form is also included).

Read from left to right to easily see the pattern. The verb tenses shown are arranged alphabetically in the Verb Tense Index.

 

Please rotate small devices horizontally to view the table below!

 

Compound Tenses That Use "être" Compound Tenses That Use "avoir"

"Secret-Travel Club" verbs

Verbs in the  pronominal format

All other verbs

Conditionnel passé (Section 1A)

Je serais allé(e)

Je me serais réveillé(e)

J'aurais parlé

Futur antérieur (Section 3A)

Je serai allé(e)

Je me serai réveillé(e)

J'aurai parlé

Futur antérieur au futur proche (Section 4A)

Je vais être allé(e)

Je vais m'être réveillé(e)

Je vais avoir parlé

Gérondif passé (Section 8A)

en étant allé(e)(s)

en m'étant réveillé(e)

en ayant parlé

Impératif passé (Section 12A)

Soyons parti(e)(s)

Not used

ayons fini

 

Infinitif passé (Section 14A)

être allé(e)(s)

s'être réveillé(e)(s)

avoir parlé

Participe passé composé (Section 17A)

étant allé(e)(s)

s'étant réveillé(e)(s)

ayant parlé

Passé antérieur (Section 19A)

Je fus allé(e)

Je me fus réveillé(e)

J'eus parlé

Passé composé (Section 20A)

Je suis allé(e)

Je me suis réveillé(e)

J'ai parlé

Passé surcomposé (Section 27A)

... quand j'ai été retourné(e) (rare)

Not used

... quand j'ai eu parlé

Plus-que-parfait (Section 28A)

J'étais allé(e)

Je m'étais réveillé(e)

J'avais parlé

Subjonctif passé (Section 37A)

... que je sois allé(e)

... que je me sois réveillé(e)

... que j'aie parlé