French past tense: talking about past events

Level A2

French past tense: talking about past events

For completed events, French commonly uses the passé composé: a present form of avoir or être plus a past participle, as in “Il a étudié hier” (“He studied yesterday”). Although this resembles English “has studied,” it also expresses events at finished times such as yesterday; the verbs here use avoir except aller, which uses être and makes its participle agree with the subject. Put ne or n’ before the auxiliary and pas after it for negatives; questions use rising intonation, est-ce que, or inversion, without adding an equivalent of “did.” Use tu with someone you know well and vous for polite singular address or any plural address; everyday on often means “we” but takes a singular verb, with allés for a male or mixed group and allées for an all-female group.

Say “ago” with il y a before the time amount

Completed events: present auxiliary + past participle

sujet auxiliaire avoir ou {être|to-be} au présent participe passé moment passé.

Common auxiliaries and past participles

InfinitiveAuxiliaryPast participle
travailleravoirtravaillé
étudieravoirétudié
mangeravoirmangé
allerêtreallé / allée / allés / allées
êtreavoirété

Negative statements: ne … pas surrounds the auxiliary

sujet ne auxiliaire au présent pas participe passé moment passé.

Say when something happened: il y a + time amount

événement au passé composé ou état à l’imparfait il y a temps écoulé.

Past states: use the imparfait of être

To describe where someone was or how something was at a past time, French often uses the imparfait: “J’étais ici hier” means “I was here yesterday.” English uses “was” or “were” for both background states and completed situations, while French distinguishes how you present them. A finished time word such as hier does not automatically require the passé composé.

The forms here are j’étais, il/elle était, and ils/elles étaient, and a negative surrounds that verb: “Ils n’étaient pas ici mardi.” In “Le livre était bien,” bien expresses a positive assessment of the book. In “La voiture n’était pas chère,” chère agrees with the feminine noun voiture, unlike English “expensive,” which never changes for gender.

Familiar questions with tu: rising intonation or est-ce que

Formal questions with vous: invert the auxiliary and subject

Ask about past presence: familiar tu étais or formal étiez-vous

forme interrogative de {être|to-be} à l’imparfait avec son sujet lieu moment passé ?

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