The passé composé is built from two pieces: a conjugated auxiliary verb (avoir or être) and a past participle. Most French verbs use avoir, so start here.
1. Formation: avoir + past participle
| J'ai parlé. | I spoke / have spoken. |
| Tu as fini. | You finished. |
| Elle a vendu sa voiture. | She sold her car. |
2. Regular past participles: -er → é, -ir → i, -re → u
| parler → parlé | spoken |
| finir → fini | finished |
| vendre → vendu | sold |
3. Most verbs use avoir
Unless a verb belongs to the small être group (see our passé composé avec être lesson) or is reflexive, it takes avoir, including every verb with a direct object.
| Nous avons mangé une pizza. | We ate a pizza. |
| Vous avez choisi un film. | You chose a movie. |
4. Watch out: no agreement, except with a preceding direct object
Normally invariable: with
avoir, the past participle doesn't change for gender or number,
elle a mangé, not "elle a mangée." The one exception is when a direct object pronoun comes before
avoir, see our
direct object pronouns lesson for that rule.
5. Conjugation: present tense (model: parler)
| j'ai parlé | I spoke |
| tu as parlé | you spoke |
| il / elle / on a parlé | he / she / one spoke |
| nous avons parlé | we spoke |
| vous avez parlé | you spoke |
| ils / elles ont parlé | they spoke |