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Level 62 - Perfect Tense (Le Passé Composé) Part 4

The perfect tense is the main past tense we use when we want to talk about what has happened in the past. We have seen how a small list of verbs need être 'to be' instead of avoir 'to have' to make the perfect tense. There is one more set of verbs which always uses être: reflexive verbs (see Level 16 for an explanation and a list of reflexive verbs). WIth these verbs that use être the past participle must agree with the person doing the verb (the letter e for a feminine agreement, the letter s for a plural agreement and es for feminine plural). Here is a reminder of the verb être 'to be':

je suis
tu es
il est
elle est
on est
nous sommes
vous êtes
ils sont
elles sont

  

I am
you are
he is, it is (m.)
she is, it is (f.)
one is, we are
we are
you are
they are (m.)
they are (f.)

We place the reflexive element (me/m', te/t', se/s', nous, vous and se/s') before the être bit as seen in the examples below.

Examples

je me suis levé à six heures
je me suis levée à six heures

tu t'es amusé
tu t'es amusée

il s'est excusé

elle s'est évanouie

on s'est habillé/ habillés/habillées de bonne heure

nous nous sommes occupés du problème
nous nous sommes occupées du problème

est-ce que vous vous êtes blessé?
est-ce que vous vous êtes blessée?
est-ce que vous vous êtes blessés?
est-ce que vous vous êtes blessées?

ils se sont fâchés

elles se sont rendues

 

I got up at six o'clock
I got up at six o'clock (female)

you enjoyed yourself
you enjoyed yourself (female)

he apologised

she fainted

we got dressed early (optional agreement if applicable)

we took care of the problem
we took care of the problem (female)

did you hurt yourself (polite, male)
did you hurt yourself (polite, female)
did you hurt yourself (plural, males or mixture)
did you hurt yourself (polite, females)

they got angry

they surrendered

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