Two Auxiliaries, One Compound Past
Every French compound tense — passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur — is built from an auxiliary verb plus a past participle. French has only two auxiliaries: avoir and être. The vast majority of verbs take avoir. A small, high-frequency group takes être.
J'ai mangé une pomme.
I ate an apple. [avoir + participle — the default]
Je suis allé au marché.
I went to the market. [être + participle — movement verb]
Knowing which auxiliary a verb takes is not optional: it changes the participle agreement rules too, so a wrong auxiliary usually produces two errors at once.
The House of Être
Verbs of motion and change of state take être. The classic mnemonic is DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP, which collects most of them:
The mnemonic
D — devenir, R — revenir, M — monter, R — rester, S — sortir, V — venir, A — arriver, N — naître, D — descendre, E — entrer, R — retourner, T — tomber, R — rester, A — aller, M — mourir, P — partir. It is imperfect but catches the important ones.
Verbs That Switch Auxiliary
This is where marks are quietly lost. Several être verbs become avoir verbs when they take a direct object. The meaning shifts from "the subject moves" to "the subject moves something".
Notice that j'ai passé un examen means "I took an exam", not "I passed" — a classic false friend that has nothing to do with the auxiliary choice but is worth knowing.
Past Participle Agreement
The auxiliary decides the agreement rule. This is the part learners most often half-learn, and it is the part examiners notice.
Marie est arrivée en retard.
Marie arrived late. [Être — participle agrees with Marie (feminine)]
Marie a acheté une voiture.
Marie bought a car. [Avoir — no agreement with subject]
La voiture que Marie a achetée est rouge.
The car that Marie bought is red. [Avoir — object before verb, so agreement]
The one-sentence rule
With être, ask "who is the subject?" and add e/s as needed. With avoir, do nothing — unless a direct object sits before the verb, in which case agree with that object.Reflexive Verbs Always Take Être
All pronominal (reflexive) verbs take être in compound tenses: je me suis levé(e), elle s'est habillée, nous nous sommes amusés. The agreement is usually with the subject, because the reflexive pronoun is normally the direct object.
The exception: when the reflexive pronoun is an indirect object, there is no agreement. Compare elle s'est lavée (she washed herself — direct) with elle s'est lavé les mains (she washed her hands — the object "les mains" comes after, so no agreement).
Common Mistakes
- Using avoir with aller — "j'ai allé" is always wrong; it is "je suis allé(e)".
- Agreeing with avoir — "elle a mangée" is wrong; no agreement with the subject.
- Forgetting agreement with être — "elles sont parti" should be "elles sont parties".
- Missing the auxiliary switch — "j'ai sorti" when you mean you went out, not took something out.
Check your agreement
Paste a past-tense paragraph into the Lingaso writing analyser to catch auxiliary and participle-agreement slips before they harden into habits.FAQ
Do I have to memorise every être verb?
You should memorise the high-frequency core — aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber — plus the switching verbs. Everything else is safer with avoir, and reading will confirm the exceptions.
Why does "j'ai passé un examen" not mean I passed?
Because passer in this context means "to take" or "to sit" an exam. To say you passed, use réussir: "j'ai réussi l'examen". This is a common false-friend trap in reading and translation tasks.
Do reflexive verbs ever take avoir?
No. All pronominal verbs form compound tenses with être. What varies is the agreement, which depends on whether the reflexive pronoun functions as a direct or indirect object.