As seen recently, the passe compose can be used with the auxiliary être or avoir. It is one of the most used tenses in French. Today will focus on learning the passe composé with être. Keep on reading to learn 3 strategies to remember the verbs used with être.
How to form the passe compose tense?
As seem previously, the passe compose is a compound tense. That means that it is composed of two verbs: the auxiliary or the helping verb that can be avoir or être and the past participle of the verb. Most verbs are conjugated with the auxiliary avoir.
Let's review how to conjugate the irregular verb être in the present tense.
Je suis => I am
Tu es => You are
Il est => He is
Elle est => She is
Nous sommes => we are
Vous êtes => you are
Ils sont/elles sont => They are
How to memorize verbs conjugated with être?
Generally, movement verbs and reflexive verbs are used with être in the passé composé. To make it easier for you to remember the list of the motion verbs conjugated with the auxiliary être, there are 3 different strategies you can implement. These strategies work for the 14 or 17 verbs (actually it can be more than that if you take into account their derivatives) generally used with the auxiliary être.
1. Strategy 1 : Learning the verbs in pairs
Most of the verbs conjugated with être have opposites. Below is the list of these opposite verbs. All you need to do is to learn them by heart.
Aller vs venir
Arriver vs Partir
Rester vs Partir
Enter vs Sortir
Monter vs Descendre
Naître vs Mourir
Passer Vs retourner
However, you will not find an opposite for the verb tomber. But at least it is the only one left so, it's not so difficult to memorize.
You have to note that the verbs listed above and also their derivatives are conjugated with the helping verb être. Ex: venir, devenir, revenir/entrer, renter / ester /monter, remonter/passer, repasser, ...
2. Strategy 2: Dr. and Mrs. Vandertramp Mnemotechnic
You have certainly heard about the Dr and MRS VANDERTRAMP mnemotechnic. So, What do Dr. and Mrs. Vandertramp stand for?
This is another way of remembering the list of 17 verbs conjugated with être in the passe compose tense. Each letter of this learning aid represents a verb. If you browse the web, you will notice that some are referring to DR and MRS Vandertramp, or DR MRS VANDERTRAMPP and others are talking about DR. and MRS P. VANDERTRAMP. As for me, I will go for the last one which includes the main 17 verbs used with être as you can see below.
D => Devenir (to become)
R =>Revenir (to come back)
M =>Monter (to go up)
R=> Rentrer (to get in, to return)
S=> Sortir (to go out)
P. => Passer (to pass)
V => Venir (to come)
A => Arriver (to arrive)
N => Naître (to be born)
D =>Descendre (to get down/go down)
E => Entrer (to enter)
R =>Retourner (to return)
T => Tomber (to fall down)
R => Rester (to stay)
A -> Aller (to go)
M => Mourir (to die)
P => Partir (to leave)
Here is a picture that summaries the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP mnemotechnic, with examples
3. Strategy 3: the house of être or la maison d’être
This is the third mnemotechnic used to learn the passe compose with être. It's a visual learning strategy, consisting of visualizing the verbs as actions or situations happening in a house like the facts of being born (Naître), dying (Mourir), going up (monter), going down (descendre), staying (rester), ...
A cup of French has a synthetic infographic of la maison d’être that you can check out for reference.
Note: some of the verbs listed above may also be used with the auxiliary avoir when they are followed with a direct object complement. Example: J'ai monté les cartons. => I have put the boxes up / Tu as sorti la poubelle? => Did you put out the trash?
Forming a negative sentence in the passé composé
To get a negative sentence, you should use the negation word ne pas, ne plus ... However, unlike