Grammar: Irregular Past Participles
If you want to use the Passé Composé verb tense in French, you will need to know four things:
- Present tenses of avoir and être verbs
- Regular past participles (see this blog post here)
- Whether a verb is conjugated with avoir or être in the Passé Composé (see this different blog post here)
- Any irregular past participles of certain verbs (the post you’re reading now)
The table below contains a list of French verbs with irregular past participles, along with similar verbs whose past participles are constructed in a similar way. Eg, just as the past participle of venir is venu, so too the past participle of devenir is devenu.
| VERB | PAST PARTICIPLE | MEANING | SIMILAR VERBS |
| acquérir | acquis | to acquire | |
| atteindre | atteint | to reach | éteindre, déteindre, reteindre, enceindre, ceindre |
| avoir | eu | to have | |
| boire | bu | to drink | |
| conduire | conduit | to drive | construire, déduire, induire, instruire, produire, réduire |
| connaître | connu | to know | |
| courir | couru | to run | accourir, encourir, parcourir, recourir, |
| craindre | craint | to fear | |
| croire | cru | to believe | |
| devoir | dû | to have to | |
| dire | dit | to say | |
| écrire | écrit | to write | |
| être | été | to be | |
| faire | fait | to do | |
| joindre | joint | to reach | |
| lire | lu | to read | |
| mettre | mis | to put | admettre, démettre, émettre, permettre, promettre, remettre |
| mourir | mort | to die | |
| mouvoir | mû | to move | émouvoir, promouvoir |
| naître | né | to be born | |
| offrir | offert | to offer | souffrir |
| ouvrir | ouvert | to open | couvrir, découvrir, rouvrir |
| paraître | paru | to appear | apparaître, disparaître |
| peindre | peint | to paint | dépeindre, repeindre, |
| pouvoir | pu | to be able | |
| prendre | pris | to take | apprendre, comprendre, déprendre, éprendre, méprendre, reprendre, surprendre |
| recevoir | reçu | to receive | apercevoir, décevoir, percevoir |
| savoir | su | to know | |
| suivre | suivi | to follow | poursuivre, s’ensuivre |
| venir | venu | to come | tenir, convenir, devenir, parvenir, revenir, survenir, se souvenir |
| vivre | vécu | to live | revivre, survivre |
| voir | vu | to see | prévoir, pourvoir, revoir |
| vouloir | voulu | to want | falloir, valoir |