Plus que parfait

The plus‐que‐parfait indicates that an action had

taken place and had been completed before
another past action took place.
1. The plus‐que‐parfait is the
compound form of the imperfect and
is formed by using the imperfect of
the appropriate helping verb (avoir
or être) + the past participle of the
verb.
Its English equivalent is “had” +
past participle:
o J'avais mal à l'estomac parce que
j'avais trop mangé. (I had a
stomachache because I had eaten
too much.)
o Il marchait avec peine parce qu'il
était tombé. (He walked with
difficulty because he had fallen.)
o Elle s'était préparée avant de
donner sa présentation. (She had
prepared herself before giving her
presentation.)
2. Remember that the past participle
must agree in number and gender
with a preceding direct‐object noun
or pronoun:
o Voici les livres que j'avais écrits il
y a longtemps. (Here are the
books I had written a long time
ago.)
o Cette robe? Elle l'avait achetée
quand elle était à Paris. (That
dress? She had bought it when
she was in Paris.)

Imparfait
The imperfect ( l'imparfait)
expresses or describes continued,
repeated, habitual actions or
incomplete actions, situations, or
events in the past. The imperfect
describes what was going on at an
indefinite time in the past or what
used to happen. The imperfect can
be translated by “would” when it
implies “used to.” The imperfect is a
simple tense that does not require a
helping verb.
The imperfect is formed by dropping
the ‐ons ending from the present
tense nous form of the verb and
adding the following endings:

The imparfait of regular verbs

Table 1 shows how the imparfait is
formed with regular verbs.
 Here are two examples:
1. Pendant mon enfance, je lisais
beaucoup. (During my childhood I
read [used to read, would read] a
lot.)
2. Je regardais la télé quand le
téléphone a sonné. (I was
watching TV when the phone
rang.)
Verbs such as étudier (to study), rire
(to laugh), sourire (to smile), and
vérifier (to check) already end in ‐
ions in the present. In the imperfect,
 an extra i is necessary in the nous
and vous forms:
Nous étudiions pendant des heures.
(We were studying for hours.)
Vous riiez trop. (You were laughing
too much.)
The following verbs have spelling
changes in the imperfect:
Verbs ending in ‐cer change ‐c to ‐ç
before ‐a to maintain the soft c
sound in the je, tu, il, and ils forms:
1. La voiture avançait lentement.
(The car was advancing slowly.)
2. Commenciez‐vous à vous
inquiéter? (Were you beginning to
get worried?)
Verbs ending in ‐ger insert a silent ‐e
between ‐g and ‐a to maintain the
soft g sound in the je, tu, il, and ils
forms:
 1. Il mangeait si vite. (He was
eating so quickly.)
2. Nous mangions toujours dans
ce restaurant. (We always ate at
that restaurant.)
Irregular verbs follow the same rules
for the formation of the imperfect as
do regular verbs. The following is a
list of the nous form of the most
common irregular verbs. To form the
imperfect, simply drop the ‐ons and
add the imperfect endings given
earlier:
o aller (to go): nous allons
o avoir (to have): nous avons
o boire (to drink): nous buvons
o conduire (to drive): nous
conduisons
o connaître (to know): nous
connaissons
o courir (to run): nous courons
o craindre (to fear): nous craignons
o croire (to believe): nous croyons
o devoir (to have to): nous devons
o dire (to say, to tell): nous disons
o dormir (to sleep): nous dormons
o écrire (to write): nous écrivons
o faire (to make, to do): nous
faisons
o lire (to read): nous lisons
o mettre (to put): nous mettons
o offrir (to offer): nous offrons
o ouvrir (to open): nous ouvrons
o plaire (to please): nous plaisons
o pouvoir (to be able to): nous
pouvons
o prendre (to take): nous prenons
o recevoir (to receive): nous
recevons
o savoir (to know): nous savons
o suivre (to follow): nous suivons
o tenir (to hold): nous tenons
o valoir (to be worth): nous valons
o venir (to come): nous venons
 o vivre (to live): nous vivons
o voir (to see): nous voyons
o vouloir (to wish, to want): nous
voulons
Note: Falloir (to be necessary) and
pleuvoir (to rain) are used only in the
il form: il fallait (it was necessary)
and il pleuvait (it was raining).
Note: The only verb that does not
follow the rule for the formation of
the imperfect is être (to be), whose
imperfect stem is ét‐: j'étais, tu étais,
il était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils
étaient.

Passe compose
The passé composé (compound past
tense), also referred to as the past
indefinite, is made up of two parts, a
helping verb and a past participle.
 It is formed by using the present
tense of the helping verb avoir (j'ai,
tu as, il/elle a, nous avons, vous
avez, ils/elles ont) or être (je suis, tu
es, il/elle est, nous sommes, vous
êtes, ils/elles sont) and adding a past
participle.
The passé composé with avoir
The past participle of regular verbs is
formed by dropping the infinitive
ending and adding ‐é for ‐er verbs, i
for ‐ir verbs, and u for ‐re verbs. The
past participles of irregular verbs
must be memorized.
1. J'ai travaillé hier. (I worked
yesterday.)
2. Il a choisi un bon livre. (He
chose a good book.)
3. Ils ont vendu leur maison.
(They sold their house.)
Past participles of verbs that use
avoir as their helping verb agree in
number and gender with a preceding
direct‐object noun or pronoun. This is
done by adding an ‐e to indicate a
feminine noun or pronoun and an ‐s
to indicate a plural noun or pronoun.
No ‐s is added to a participle that
already ends in ‐s:

1. La mousse Je l'ai préparée hier.

(The mousse? I prepared it
yesterday.)
2. Voici les trophées que mon fils
a reçus. (Here are the trophies
that my son received.)
3. Je ne me rappelle pas les bus
que nous avons pris. (I don't
remember the buses we took.)
The passé composé with être
Only 17 verbs use être as their
helping verb. These verbs generally,
but not always, express motion or a
change of place, state, or condition,
such as going up, going down, going
in, going out, or remaining. The
verbs are:
o descendre (to go down)
o rester (to remain)
o mourir (to die)
o retourner (to return)
o sortir (to go out)
o venir (to come)
o arriver (to arrive)
o naître (to be born)
o devenir (to become)
o entrer (to enter)
o rentrer (to return)
o tomber (to fall)
o revenir (to come back)
o aller (to go)
o monter (to go up)
o partir (to leave)
o passer (to pass by)
 When être is the helping verb, the
past participle must agree in number
and gender with the subject; this is
done by adding ‐e for a feminine
subject and ‐s for a plural subject:
1. Il est rentré. (He returned
home.)
2. Elle est née en juin. (She was
born in June.)
3. Nous sommes revenus hier.
(We came back yesterday.)
4. Elles sont tombées. (They fell.)
5. Verbs that use être or avoir
The verbs descendre (to go down),
monter (to go up), passer (to pass
by), rentrer (to return home),
retourner (to return), and sortir (to
go out) generally use être as their
helping verb. They may use avoir
when the sentence contains a direct
object. In these cases, their meaning
changes: descendre (to take down),
monter (to take up), passer (to
spend time), rentrer (to bring in),
retourner (to turn over), and sortir
(to take out):
1. Je suis descendu. (I went
downstairs.)
2. Je suis descendu du train. (I
got off the train.)
3. J'ai descendu le livre. (I took
the book down.)
4. Il est monté. (He went
upstairs.)
5. Il a monté ses bagages. (He
took his luggage upstairs.)
6. Il est passé par l'école. (He
passed by the school.)
7. Il a passé une heure là‐bas.
(He spent an hour there.)
8. Ils sont rentrés tard. (They
came home late.)
 9. Ils ont rentré le chien. (They
brought in the dog.)
10. Elle est retournée ` Nice. (She
returned to Nice.)
11. Elle a retourné la lettre. (She
turned over the letter.)
12. Je suis sortie. (I went out.)
13. J'ai sorti mon argent. (I took
out my money.)
The passé composé with reflexive
verbs
Reflexive verbs use être as their
helping verb. When the reflexive
pronoun is also the direct object, the
past participle agrees with the
reflexive pronoun. When the
reflexive pronoun is the indirect
object (and, thus, the direct object
comes after the verb), there is no
agreement of the past participle with
the reflexive pronoun.
 1. Il s'est levé à six heures. (He
got up at six o'clock.)
2. Elle s'est lavée. (She washed
herself.)
3. Elle s'est lavé la figure. (She
washed her face.)
4. Negating in the passé composé
To negate a sentence in the passé
composé, put the negative
expression around the conjugated
helping verb and any pronouns that
precede it:
1. Je n'ai pas fini mon dîner. (I
haven't finished my dinner.)
2. Il n'a rien découvert. (He
discovered nothing.)
3. Elle n'y est pas restée
longtemps. (She didn't stay there
a long time.)
4. Elles ne se sont jamais
maquillées. (They never put on
makeup.)
 Questions in the passé composé
To form a question in the passé
composé, invert the conjugated
helping verb (with any pronouns
related to it preceding it) with the
subject pronoun, and add a hyphen.
In general, avoid inverting with je;
instead, use est‐ce que to form the
question. With avoir, a ‐t‐ must be
added when the subject is il or elle.
Negatives surround the hyphenated
inverted forms:
1. As‐tu oublié? (Did you forget?)
2. Lui a‐t‐elle parlé? (Did she
speak to him?)
3. Y est‐elle arrivée? (Did she
arrive there?)
4. Est‐ce que j'ai tort? (Am I
wrong?)
5. N'a‐t‐il pas vu ce film? (Hasn't
he seen this movie?)
 6. Vous êtes‐vous préparé( e)
( s) ? (Did you prepare yourself
[yourselves]?)
7. Ne s'est‐elle pas levée? (Didn't
she get up?)
Passe compose VS imparfait

Le futur simple
To form the future tense with most
verbs simply add the following
endings to the infinitive form
-ai
 -as
-a
-ons
-es
-ont
For regular and irregular er and ir
verbs the infinitve is the futur stem.
For regular and irregular re verbs the
infintve after dropping the final e is
the future stem.
Exceptions
Stem changes
Ler verbs ______ ller
Ter verbs ______ tter
Yer verbs______ ier
Completely changed
 Le futur proche
formation
subject + aller [present] + infinitive
of the main verb
je vais vendre

le futur
anterieur
formation
subject + simple futur of avoir/etre +
past participle
j’aurais fait
je serai parti
verbe 1 futur anterieur and verbe 2
futur simple