Hello, super students! So, I hope you're all motivated today, because we're attacking a big chunk: the composed past tense in French. First of all, before we start, I wanted, once again, wish everyone a lot of courage in this containment quarantine and then also for people who work in health care.
And again: thank you. I wanted to tell you that since this is a video about conjugation, and yes, of course, we're going to launch an offer on our "Verbs and Conjugation" pack. It's a fantastic course, I leave you all the details in the video description.
Come on, first point: let's start with its use. So, just a reminder, because I've already made a video that compares the composed past with the imperfect past, I leave you the link Then the composed past tense will be used to tell a fact in the past, and it's usually an action that's completed, and is mostly time-bound, okay? And that's usually the main action in my sentence.
So, it's really interesting actually to compare it to the imperfect tense, since those are the two main tenses of the past. And the imperfect tense, therefore, will serve to further describe, right? To describe the scenery.
And it is is much less time bound. Let's look at an example right now; it's much simpler. I might say, for example: it was beautiful, it was very hot (so description: imperfect) and all of a sudden, we heard a cannon shot.
All right? And here, "we heard," that's the past tense. So, one important thing is that things are not set in stone.
That is, the same sentence, well, I can change it. . .
I can either put it in the past tense or the imperfect tense. So, for example, I could say: yesterday I tidied up my room. And I could also say: yesterday I was cleaning my room.
So, in the second option, it actually feels like it's taking longer, right? While "I tidied my room," well, it was at a certain point in the day. And it actually depends a lot on the verbs we use.
For example, I'm going to be able to say: Yesterday Paul arrived home at eleven o'clock. But now I can hardly use the imperfect tense by saying: Yesterday Paul arrived at eleven o'clock. Because the verb "to arrive" is something that is done in a short period of time.
And so, here, it's better to use the composed past tense. And the imperfect one is a little difficult, if not almost impossible. Come on, part two now, let's go see the formation.
Good. Now, that's very important, because if you can actually build up your compound past, you'll actually know how to build all the French compound tenses. So, compound times are constructed as follows: First, an auxiliary is used.
And so, there are two possible auxiliaries: the auxiliary "être" and the auxiliary "avoir". And then we use the past participle. So for the composed past tense, the auxiliary will be conjugated to the present tense.
Let's take a look at an example with the auxiliary être : Jean has gone to the beach. Therefore EST, It is the auxiliary être conjugated in the present tense and PARTI is the past participle of my verb which I want to conjugate in the compound past tense, i. e.
, the verb partir (to go). Now, let's look at an example with the auxiliary avoir: She's been working hard. So A, this is my auxiliary avoir conjugated in the present tense.
TRAVAILLÉ is the past participle of the verb to work, which I've conjugated into the past tense. So, the question that immediately arises is: when should we use the auxiliary être, and when should we use the auxiliary avoir? So, that's the big question, and this is the first great difficulty in the formation of French composed tenses.
So let's start with the auxiliary être for example. So, we use the auxiliary être when we have a pronominal verb. So for all pronominal verbs, we will use the auxiliary être.
And then we're going to use the auxiliary être with a list as well, then, more or less 12 verbs that you must know by heart. So I'll leave you the list. There, you should see it appear on the screen.
And we're going to use the auxiliary avoir with all the other verbs. So be careful, I have to add a little parenthesis. If there is a direct object complement, we actually use the auxiliary avoir.
So I'm going to say for example: I went out. There is no direct object complement ; but I'll say: I took the car (direct object supplement) out of the garage. So now part three, we're going to see the formation of the past participle.
Well then, there's no magic method. In fact, the simplest way is to divide them according to the sound you hear at the end. So the first family is the past participle that ends in -E, with E sharp accent.
So it's easy, it's all verbs that end in ER in the infinitive. For example, MANGER, well, that's going to make us a past participle: MANGÉ, with É. And we must also add the verb to be.
For example: I have been, and the verb to be born: I have been born. Then afterwards there are the past participles which end in I. So, it can be I, IS or IT.
So these are many verbs that end in IR in the infinitive, but not only that. So for example the verb FINIR: I have finished, but also for example the verb METTRE: I have put. So then we have the past participle that finishes in a U.
So these are quite a few verbs as well, and often important verbs. So for example the verb VOULOIR: I wanted. Or the verb READ: I read.
And finally, there is the series of other cases, for example the verb DO: I have done. Or the verb TO DIE: I am dead. Then, fourth point: the agreement of the past participle.
Oh dear, that famous extremely complicated rule in French. Well, in this video I'm going to keep it simple, I'm not going to make it exhaustive. So, to put it simply, when you have the auxiliary être, well, you make the agreement with the subject, the agreement in gender and number.
So let us take an example: Mary is gone. Well, "gone" is going to be I E, because Mary is singular but feminine. Or: they're gone, I E S.
Jean is gone, I, because this is masculine singular. But with the auxiliary avoir there is no agreement. For example, we will say: she grew up in France.
So here, "grandi" is I, we don't make the agreement. But, well, yes, because you have to complicate things a little bit, if there is a direct object complement placed before the verb, even though we're with the auxiliary avoir, Well, we will make the agreement in kind and number with the direct object complement. Let us see an example: The things I have taken are not yours.
So I said, "the things I've taken. " because it is business, and it is feminine and plural. So I'm not going to go any further here in the past participle participle agreement rule, because really it's not worth it, that's not the main subject of this video either.
Well, there would still be much to be said about the composed past. Of course, we could have seen the negative form, the interrogative form, one wonders where the adverbs should be placed. I don't want to do everything exhaustively in this video, and anyway I would advise you to practice a lot, a lot, because there's no secret to getting to know this verbal tense, especially its formation, well, it takes practice.
So, feel free to do lots of exercises. And just so, I will leave you with an interactive exercise which you'll find on the article that corresponds to this video. I leave you all the links in the description.
I kiss you very much and see you soon.
