

Descriptions of events or situations that were repeated or that happened over a long period of time.Įx: When he was a middle-schooler, he swam every day.Įx: They visited Japan every year when he was young.Events or happenings that are happening when something else takes place.Įx: While she was doing her homework, her friend called on the telephone.Įx: While I was finishing my masters’ degree in France, Michael Jackson died.Įx: While you were eating a banana, you burst out laughing.You ate a banana.īut what do you do about the following situations?

I spent two years in France.Įlle a fait ses devoirs hier. The passé composé is a good way to discuss single events that happened once or at a specific point in time.
#Quitter conjugation passe compose how to#
So, perhaps you’ve learned how to use the passé composé to talk about events in the past tense. shares her guide to one of those forms, the imparfait… It is used in the sense of “each other” for these verbs.The French language uses several different verb forms to talk about events that occurred in the past. This is because the reflexive pronoun is an indirect object. The participe passé does not agree with the subject of the following verbs: se téléphoner to call each other, se parler to talk to each other, se mentir to lie to each other, se plaire (complaire/déplaire) to like each other, se sourire to smile at each other, se rire to laugh at each other, se nuire to hurt each other, se succéder to succeed each other, se suffire to be enough, se ressembler to look like each other, s’en vouloir to be annoyed with each other. Marie and Laurent called each other on the phone. Remember: the participe passé never agrees with an indirect object.Įxample: Marie et Laurent se sont téléphoné. In this case, the past participle does not agree.Įxample: Elle s’est lavé les mains. The exception is when the direct object comes after the reflexive verb.

When a verb takes être as an auxiliary, the participle agrees in gender and number with the subject.Įxample: Il est all é dans son bureau.This agreement is necessary in the following situations: Example: À quelle heure es-tu sorti ce matin? What time did you leave this morning? sortir = leave but: As-tu sorti les carottes du frigo hier soir? Did you take the carrots out of the fridge yesterday evening? sortir = take outįor some verbs, the participe passé has to agree in gender and number with either the subject or the object of the sentence. In this case, the meaning of the verb often changes. Note: we use avoir when descendre, ( r)entrer, (re)monter, retourner and sortir are followed by a direct object.

