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) ___devenu__________ to become
*(Revenir) ___revenu___________ to come back
Monter ___monté___________ to climb / to go up
Rester ___resté____________ to stay
Sortir ___sorti_____________ to go out / to exit
*Venir ___venu____________ to come
Arriver ___arrivé___________ to arrive
*Naître ___né______________ to be born
Descendre ___descendu________ to go down / to descend
Entrer ___entré___________ to enter
Retourner ___retourné_________ to return
Tomber ___tombé___________ to fall
Rentrer ___rentré___________ to re-enter / to return home
Aller ___allé_____________ to go
*Mourir ___mort____________ to die
Partir ___parti____________ to leave
*** “ETRE” is also used with reflexive verbs (i.e. je me brosse les dents → je me suis brossé les dents)
2. You can draw a house. This is known as “La maison d’être”.