The Passé Composé

The Passé Composé

The passé composé is used to indicate actions that happened at a specific time in the past, and are no longer occuring. The closest thing we have to it in English is the Present Perfect (I have eaten, he has gone, etc.). The passé composé can be used to express three different ideas in English:

J'ai mangé		—I ate
		—I did eat
		—I have eaten

Il a fini		—He finished
		—He did finish
		—He has finished

*NB: One of the ways the passé composé can be translated into English uses the auxiliary verb "to have" plus the past participle. The only times that using the auxiliary verb "to have" plus the past participle translates into the passé composé is when the form used is "have" or "has." If the form "had" is used for the auxiliary verb, it is not the time to use the passé composé, but another past tense, called the pluperfect. Example:

Translate as Passé Composé		Translate as Pluperfect

I have chosen		I had chosen
You have chosen		You had chosen
He/She/It has chosen		He/She/It had chosen
We have chosen		We had chosen
You have chosen		You had chosen
They have chosen		They had chosen

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