Grammar: Passé Composé with être

In the French verb tense “Passé Composé,” most verbs are conjugated with “avoir.” So for example, “I have given” is “j’ai donné,” which literally translates to “I have given.”

But some intransitive verbs are conjugated with “être,” the verb “to be.”

What is an intransitive verb?

An intransitive verb is a verb without an object. Transitive verbs (the regular kind) have a direct object. The verb “to see” is a transitive verb. A transitive verb has as an object whatever it is that is being acted upon. So in the sentence “I see the beach,” the object is “the beach,” because that is what is being “seen.”

An intransitive verb has no direct object. For example, “to go” is an intransitive verb. You can’t “go the beach.” You can, however, “go TO the beach,” but the beach is not the object of the verb “to go.” The only person “going” is you, and nothing else is being “gone.” The verb “to go” doesn’t act on anything else. You (or whoever is “going”) is in charge of the process of going, but there is no object.

Which French verbs are conjugated with être in the Passé Composé?

The French verbs conjugated with être in the Passé Composé are verbs that usually have some relation to the activities commonly performed in and around a house. Some people refer to them as “house verbs” for that reason.

First letter	Infinitive	Meaning	Past participle
D	devenir	to become	devenu (irregular)
R	revenir	to come back	revenu (irregular)
M	mourir	to die	mort (irregular)
R	retourner	to return	retourné
S	sortir	to go out	sorti
V	venir	to come	venu (irregular)
A	arriver	to arrive	arrivé
N	naître	to be born	né (irregular)
D	descendre	to descend	descendu
E	entrer	to enter	entré
R	rentrer	to return	rentré
T	tomber	to fall	tombé
R	rester	to stay, remain	resté
A	aller	to go	allé
M	monter	to go up	monté
P	partir	to leave	parti
P	passer	to pass by	passé

If you think that dying and being born don’t sound like activities that normally happen at home, remember that for the majority of human history, the home is where most people where born and where many people died.

Mnemonic

If you take the first letter of each verb in the above table (eg “d” from devenir, “r” from revenir, etc), you will end up with this list of letters: DRMRSVANDERTRAMPP.

You can turn this into the name of an imaginary married couple: “Dr & Mrs Van Der Trampp.” This gives you a way to remember at least the first letter of each verb in this list of verbs conjugated with être in the Passé Composé.

How to form the Passé Composé of a verb conjugated with être

Present tense of être	Past participle	Result	Meaning
je suis	allé	je suis allé	I went, I have gone, I did go
tu es	allé	tu es allé	you went, you have gone, you did go
il est	allé	il est allé	he went, he has gone, he did go
nous sommes	allés	nous sommes allés	we went, we have gone, we did go
vous êtes	allés	vous êtes allés	you went, you have gone, you did go
ils sont	allés	ils sont allés	they went, they have gone, they did go

Number & gender agreement of Past Participle

The past participle must agree in number and gender with the subject (the person in charge of doing the verb).

Masculine	Feminine
je suis allé	je suis allée
tu es allé	tu es allée
il est allé	elle est allée
nous sommes allés	nous sommes allées
vous êtes allés	vous êtes allées
ils sont allés	elles sont allées

^{Image courtesy of vecteezy.com}

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