Can you help me with the passé composé: être and avoir. I understand when to use être and avoir but I don't know if I'm supposed to add an extra e or ees for the verbs.
Correction: I don't know when I'm supposed to add an extra e or ees. Can you give me examples. Thanks so much
First of all, memorize the 16 verbs that take être in the passé composé, either with "the House of être" or "Dr. & Mrs. Vandertramp.
The past participle functions like an adjective when conjugated with être. It must agree in gender (mascuine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the subject.
Elle est montrée l'escalier.
Ils ne sont pas tombés.
Since the pronouns je, tu, nous and vous may be masculine or feminine, and vous may be singular or plural, the past participles used with them vary in ending.
Quand êtes-vous partie, Hélène. (the name of the girl identifies "vous" as singular and feminine.)
Quand êtes-vous arrivés, messieurs. (the last word identifies "vous" as masculine and plural.)
Will that do it? If not, repost any questions. There were also examples on the other 2 posts I did for you earlier today.
Sra (aka Mme)
Certainly, I can help you with the passé composé and the use of "être" and "avoir" as auxiliary verbs. In French, the passé composé is a compound tense used to talk about completed actions in the past.
To form the passé composé, you need to conjugate the auxiliary verb (être or avoir) in the present tense, and then add the past participle of the main verb.
1. "Avoir" as an auxiliary verb:
When using "avoir" as an auxiliary verb, you don't need to add an extra "e" or "es" to the past participle of the main verb. The past participle remains unchanged for regular verbs ending in -er, -ir, or -re.
For example:
- J'ai mangé (I have eaten)
- Tu as parlé (You have spoken)
- Il/Elle/On a fini (He/She/One has finished)
- Nous avons joué (We have played)
- Vous avez choisi (You have chosen)
- Ils/Elles ont vendu (They have sold)
2. "Être" as an auxiliary verb:
When using "être" as an auxiliary verb, the past participle needs to agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. This means adding an extra "e" for feminine singular subjects and adding an extra "es" for feminine plural subjects.
For example:
- Je suis allé (I went)
- Tu es allé(e) (You went)
- Il/Elle/On est allé(e) (He/She/One went)
- Nous sommes allé(e)s (We went)
- Vous êtes allé(e)(s) (You went)
- Ils/Elles sont allé(e)s (They went)
Note that the agreement only applies to verbs that use "être" as an auxiliary verb and not to verbs that use "avoir."
Remember that there are some irregular past participles that do not follow the regular patterns, so it's important to study and memorize them separately.