First steps with the passé composé
Describe a completed activity using avoir and a past participle.
What you’ll work on
- Recognize the two parts of the passé composé.
- Use familiar -er past participles.
- Distinguish a past activity from a future plan.
A short conversation
Google voice when available; device voice as a fallback. Read along, then try each line aloud.
Qu'est-ce que tu as fait hier ?
What did you do yesterday?
J'ai visité un musée et j'ai mangé au café.
I visited a museum and ate at the café.
Tu as aimé le musée ?
Did you like the museum?
Oui. J'ai pris des photos. Demain, je vais visiter le parc.
Yes. I took photos. Tomorrow, I am going to visit the park.
Build a simple completed action
The passé composé commonly describes completed past activities. For the verbs in this lesson, use a present form of avoir plus a past participle: j’ai parlé, tu as parlé, nous avons parlé.
The avoir form changes for the subject. In these simple examples, the participle does not change: elle a parlé and ils ont parlé. Later grammar introduces agreement in other constructions.
Learn useful participles
Many -er verbs form the participle in -é: parler → parlé, visiter → visité, manger → mangé. Finir has fini. Some frequent verbs are irregular: faire → fait, prendre → pris, avoir → eu, être → été.
This first lesson stays with verbs using avoir as their auxiliary. Some verbs use être, including aller, and pronominal verbs follow another pattern. Look up that construction before applying avoir to every verb.
Locate the activity in time
Hier means yesterday; ce matin means this morning. A negative surrounds the auxiliary: je n’ai pas travaillé. A question can use ordinary question intonation: tu as travaillé hier ?
Compare j’ai visité le musée, a completed visit, with je vais visiter le musée, a future plan. Learning the difference gives you a useful way to tell a short story without claiming that one tense covers every past meaning.
Lesson vocabulary
Listen once, say it aloud, and try to recall the French before looking.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| hier | yesterday | |
| ce matin | this morning | |
| parlé | spoken | |
| visité | visited | |
| mangé | eaten | |
| fait | done / made | |
| pris | taken | |
| une photo | a photo |
Practice questions
Try every question, then check your answers. Capital letters and punctuation do not affect your score. Accents and ç do matter.
Showing an answer makes that question a practice item worth zero for this attempt. Retry with the answers hidden when you’re ready. If audio cannot play, use Show answer / text to practice by reading.
Independent practice
These are independent practice tasks. The site does not record your voice, save your writing, or grade open-ended answers. Ask a teacher or conversation partner for feedback when you can.
Speaking practice
Describe three invented activities from yesterday and one plan for tomorrow.
Writing practice
Write four past activities using avoir. Check each auxiliary and participle.
Review the lesson objectives
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