Le passé composé avec ÊTRE
To talk about things that happened in the past, we use le passé composé. Up to this point, we have been forming the
passé composé solely using AVOIR as our “auxiliaire”.
MAIS… there are specific verbs that are formed with ÊTRE.
Comment ça marche ?
Look at the examples below and note how le passé composé is formed using « être ».
Marie est allée au cinéma. > Marie went to the cinema.
Elles sont descendues du bus. > They descended from the bus.
Je suis sorti(e) avec Marc. > I went out with Marc.
Les verbes
You can remember which verbs use “être” two ways.
1. You can think of the acronym (DR) MRS VANDERTRAMP.
participe passé en anglais
(Devenir) ___________________ _____________________
(Revenir) ___________________ _____________________
Monter ___________________ _____________________
Rester ___________________ _____________________
Sortir ___________________ _____________________
Venir ___________________ _____________________
Arriver ___________________ _____________________
Naître ___________________ _____________________
Descendre ___________________ _____________________
Entrer ___________________ _____________________
Retourner ___________________ _____________________
Tomber ___________________ _____________________
Rentrer ___________________ _____________________
Aller ___________________ _____________________
Mourir ___________________ _____________________
Partir ___________________ _____________________
2. You can draw a house. This is known as “La maison d’être”.