The passé composé is a tense used to express an action or a state that happened in the past. We call it “composé” because it’s composed of two parts: An auxiliary, either the auxiliary “être” to be or the auxiliary “avoir” to have and a past participle of a verb. In this part we will only tackle the passé composé of the verbs of the third group that require the auxiliary “avoir” .
The verbs of the third group are called irregular because they don’t follow a specific rule when they are conjugated. Because there are so many irregular verbs, we will classify them here according to the formation of their past participle. In this lesson, we will study the verbs of the third group ending in “oire”, “ire” and also verbs that don’t follow any specific pattern or rule.
For example: To find the past participle of the verb “boire”, you remove the “oire” at the end of the verb and replace it with “u” and you obtain “bu”.
Je n’arrive pas à croire que tu as bu toute la bouteille!
I can’t believe you drank the whole bottle!
Quand je lui ai dit que mon père travaillait dans La Maison Blanche, elle ne m’a pas cru.
When I told her that my father worked in The White House, she didn’t believe me.
Remember: The past participle of “croître” is “crû”.
For example: To find the past participle fo the verb “inscrire”, you remove the “re” at the end of the verb and you replace it by “t” and you obtain “inscrit”.
Le directeur de l’école a interdit aux élèves de se rassembler devant le portail de l’école.
The school’s principal forbade the students to gather in front of the school’s gate.
Le médecin a prescrit à ma mère des médicaments très forts.
The doctor prescribed very strong medecines for my mother.
Their past participles are respectively: fait, lu, plu, suivi, ri, souri, vécu.
Nous avons fait beaucoup d’efforts pour atteindre nos objectifs.
We made a lot of efforts to reach our objectives.
J’ai lu dans le journal que le gouvernement allait sponsoriser les petites entreprises.
I read in the newspaper that the government would sponsor the small businesses.
Vos peintures ont plu à tout le monde.
Everybody liked your paintings.
Vous avez suivi tous les matchs de la Coupe du monde de foot?
Did you follow all the games of the soccer World Cup?
Quand je leur ai montré tes nouvelles bottes, ils ont bien ri.
When I showed them your new boots, they laughed a lot.
Elle était tellement heureuse qu’elle a souri à tout le monde dans la rue.
She was so happy that she smiled at everybody in the street.
Tu as vécu combien d’années en France?
How many years did you live in France?
The verbs of the third group are called irregular because they don’t follow a specific rule when they are conjugated. Because there are so many irregular verbs, we will classify them here according to the formation of their past participle. In this lesson, we will study the verbs of the third group ending in “oire”, “ire” and also verbs that don’t follow any specific pattern or rule.
Verbs of the third group ending in “oire” that form their past participle by dropping the “oire” and replacing it with “u”:
boire, croire, croître.For example: To find the past participle of the verb “boire”, you remove the “oire” at the end of the verb and replace it with “u” and you obtain “bu”.
Je n’arrive pas à croire que tu as bu toute la bouteille!
I can’t believe you drank the whole bottle!
Quand je lui ai dit que mon père travaillait dans La Maison Blanche, elle ne m’a pas cru.
When I told her that my father worked in The White House, she didn’t believe me.
Remember: The past participle of “croître” is “crû”.
Verbs of the third group ending in “ire” that form their past participle by dropping the “re” and replacing it with “t”:
inscrire, interdire, prescrire, écrire, dire, prédire.For example: To find the past participle fo the verb “inscrire”, you remove the “re” at the end of the verb and you replace it by “t” and you obtain “inscrit”.
Le directeur de l’école a interdit aux élèves de se rassembler devant le portail de l’école.
The school’s principal forbade the students to gather in front of the school’s gate.
Le médecin a prescrit à ma mère des médicaments très forts.
The doctor prescribed very strong medecines for my mother.
Verbs that don’t follow any rule or pattern:
The third group contain verbs which past participles don’t follow any specific rule or pattern. We have selected the most commonly used ones : faire, lire, plaire, suivre, rire, sourire, vivre.Their past participles are respectively: fait, lu, plu, suivi, ri, souri, vécu.
Nous avons fait beaucoup d’efforts pour atteindre nos objectifs.
We made a lot of efforts to reach our objectives.
J’ai lu dans le journal que le gouvernement allait sponsoriser les petites entreprises.
I read in the newspaper that the government would sponsor the small businesses.
Vos peintures ont plu à tout le monde.
Everybody liked your paintings.
Vous avez suivi tous les matchs de la Coupe du monde de foot?
Did you follow all the games of the soccer World Cup?
Quand je leur ai montré tes nouvelles bottes, ils ont bien ri.
When I showed them your new boots, they laughed a lot.
Elle était tellement heureuse qu’elle a souri à tout le monde dans la rue.
She was so happy that she smiled at everybody in the street.
Tu as vécu combien d’années en France?
How many years did you live in France?