Past Tenses

🇫🇷 Talking About Time: French Past Tenses

The Time Machine Analogy 🕰️

Imagine you have a magical time machine with different buttons. Each button takes you to the past in a different way:

• Passé Composé = The “SNAPSHOT” button 📸 (one specific moment)
• Imparfait = The “VIDEO” button 🎬 (ongoing scene, background)
• Plus-que-parfait = The “FLASHBACK” button ⏪ (even further back)

Let’s learn how to use each button!

1. Passé Composé with AVOIR 📸

This is your main “snapshot” button. Most verbs use avoir as their helper.

The Recipe

Subject + AVOIR (conjugated) + Past Participle

AVOIR Conjugations

Past Participle Endings

Examples

• J’ai mangé une pizza. (I ate a pizza.)
• Tu as fini tes devoirs. (You finished your homework.)
• Elle a vendu sa voiture. (She sold her car.)

🎯 Think of it like: “I HAVE eaten” = J’ai mangé

2. Passé Composé with ÊTRE 🏃

Some special verbs use être instead of avoir. These are mostly movement verbs.

The Recipe

Subject + ÊTRE (conjugated) + Past Participle

ÊTRE Conjugations

Examples

• Je suis allé(e) au parc. (I went to the park.)
• Elle est tombée. (She fell.)
• Nous sommes partis. (We left.)

⚠️ Important: With être, the past participle AGREES with the subject!

3. DR MRS VANDERTRAMP Verbs 🏠

These are the special verbs that use être. The name is a memory trick!

graph TD
    A["DR MRS VANDERTRAMP"] --> D["Devenir - to become"]
    A --> R1["Revenir - to come back"]
    A --> M["Monter - to go up"]
    A --> R2["Rester - to stay"]
    A --> S1["Sortir - to go out"]
    A --> V["Venir - to come"]
    A --> A1["Aller - to go"]
    A --> N["Naître - to be born"]
    A --> D1["Descendre - to go down"]
    A --> E["Entrer - to enter"]
    A --> R3["Rentrer - to return home"]
    A --> T["Tomber - to fall"]
    A --> R4["Retourner - to return"]
    A --> A2["Arriver - to arrive"]
    A --> M1["Mourir - to die"]
    A --> P["Partir - to leave"]

The House Story 🏠

Imagine a person’s life in a house:

• They are born (naître)
• They come home (venir)
• They go up stairs (monter)
• They go down stairs (descendre)
• They enter rooms (entrer)
• They go out (sortir)
• They stay home (rester)
• They leave (partir)
• They arrive somewhere (arriver)
• They fall sometimes (tomber)
• They return (retourner)
• They die eventually (mourir)

Plus: aller (go), devenir (become), revenir (come back), rentrer (return home)

4. Past Participle Agreement 🎯

With ÊTRE verbs

The past participle must match the subject:

Examples

• Marie est arrivée. (Marie arrived.) ➡️ +e for feminine
• Les garçons sont tombés. (The boys fell.) ➡️ +s for masculine plural
• Les filles sont sorties. (The girls went out.) ➡️ +es for feminine plural

With AVOIR + Direct Object Before Verb

Only agree when the direct object comes BEFORE the verb:

• La pomme que j’ai mangée (The apple that I ate)
• Je l’ai vue. (I saw her.) ➡️ “l’” refers to a feminine noun

5. Imparfait: The Video Button 🎬

The imparfait shows the background, habits, or ongoing situations in the past.

Formation

Take the nous form of present tense, drop -ons, add imparfait endings:

Parler → nous parlons → parl- → je parlais

Imparfait Endings

When to Use Imparfait

1. Descriptions: Il faisait beau. (It was nice weather.)
2. Habits: Je mangeais des croissants. (I used to eat croissants.)
3. Ongoing actions: Elle dormait. (She was sleeping.)
4. Age/Time: J’avais 10 ans. (I was 10 years old.)
5. Emotions: Il était triste. (He was sad.)

Examples

• Quand j’étais petit… (When I was little…)
• Il pleuvait tous les jours. (It rained every day.)
• Nous habitions à Paris. (We used to live in Paris.)

6. Passé Composé vs Imparfait ⚔️

This is the big question: Which one do I use?

The Movie Rule 🎬

Think of telling a story like making a movie:

The Perfect Sentence Pattern

Background (imparfait) + WHEN + Action (passé composé)

• Je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné.

  • (I was sleeping when the phone rang.)

• Il pleuvait quand je suis sorti.

  • (It was raining when I went out.)

• Elle regardait la télé quand son ami est arrivé.

  • (She was watching TV when her friend arrived.)

Quick Decision Guide

7. Plus-que-parfait: The Flashback ⏪

This is for when you’re already in the past, and want to talk about something even earlier.

Formation

AVOIR or ÊTRE (in imparfait) + Past Participle

Conjugation Examples

When to Use It

To show that one past action happened BEFORE another past action:

• J’avais déjà mangé quand il est arrivé.

  • (I had already eaten when he arrived.)

• Elle était partie avant que je téléphone.

  • (She had left before I called.)

• Nous n’avions jamais vu ce film.

  • (We had never seen that movie.)

Timeline Visualization

PAST ←────────────────────────────→ NOW
         ↑              ↑
   Plus-que-parfait  Passé composé
   (happened first)  (happened after)

Example Story

Quand je suis arrivé à la gare, le train était déjà parti. (When I arrived at the station, the train had already left.)

• suis arrivé = passé composé (the moment in the past)
• était parti = plus-que-parfait (happened before that moment)

🎯 Summary: Your Time Machine Buttons

🚀 Pro Tips

1. DR MRS VANDERTRAMP = être verbs (memorize the house story!)
2. Avoir is the default for passé composé
3. être verbs need agreement with the subject
4. Imparfait = was doing / used to do
5. Passé composé = did / has done
6. Plus-que-parfait = had done

You now have all the buttons on your time machine! Practice pressing each one, and soon you’ll travel through French time like a pro! 🇫🇷✨