Passé Composé with ÊTRE — The 17 Special Verbs

Why this matters

Yesterday you learned passé composé with avoir — which covers most verbs. Today you meet the special club: 17 verbs (plus all reflexive verbs) that use être instead of avoir. These are mostly verbs of movement and change. Mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes in French, so getting this right will make you stand out.

🦝 Remy says: "Think of être verbs as the 'movement and change' club. Most of them are about going somewhere, coming from somewhere, arriving, leaving, being born, dying... Life's big events, basically. They get their own auxiliary because they're special like that."

Passé Composé with ÊTRE

Subject + conjugated ÊTRE + past participle (which AGREES with subject)

The key difference from avoir: the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject.

| Subject | Add to past participle | |

|

-| | masculine singular | nothing (base form) | | feminine singular | + e | | masculine plural | + s | | feminine plural | + es |

Example with aller:

• Il est allé au marché. = He went to the market.
• Elle est allée au marché. = She went to the market.
• Ils sont allés au marché. = They (m.) went to the market.
• Elles sont allées au marché. = They (f.) went to the market.

The 17 DR MRS VANDERTRAMP Verbs

A classic memory trick — each letter represents a verb:

| Letter | Verb | Meaning | Past Participle | |

--|

|

|

-| | D | Devenir | to become | devenu | | R | Revenir | to come back | revenu | | M | Monter | to go up | monté | | R | Rentrer | to return home | rentré | | S | Sortir | to go out | sorti | | V | Venir | to come | venu | | A | Aller | to go | allé | | N | Naître | to be born | né | | D | Descendre | to go down | descendu | | E | Entrer | to enter | entré | | R | Rester | to stay | resté | | T | Tomber | to fall | tombé | | R | Retourner | to return | retourné | | A | Arriver | to arrive | arrivé | | M | Mourir | to die | mort | | P | Partir | to leave | parti | | P | Passer | to pass by | passé |

🦝 Remy's memory trick: "DR MRS VANDERTRAMP — she's a fictional Belgian lady who does a lot of moving around. Born, goes out, comes back, goes up stairs, falls down... quite the life. Say her name and you remember all 17 verbs!"

Negation with Être Verbs

Ne...pas wraps around être:

• Elle **n'**est pas allée au bureau. = She didn't go to the office.
• Ils ne sont pas restés longtemps. = They didn't stay long.

📝 Exercise 1 — Choose avoir or être

1. J'________ mangé une pomme.
2. Elle ________ allée au cinéma.
3. Nous ________ arrivés à 8h.
4. Tu ________ fini le livre ?
5. Ils ________ restés à la maison.

✅ Answers:

1. ai
2. est
3. sommes
4. as
5. sont

📝 Exercise 2 — Add agreement

Write the correct past participle form.

1. Elle est ________ (partir) tôt.
2. Elles sont ________ (arriver) en retard.
3. Il est ________ (naître) en 1990.
4. Ils sont ________ (venir) en voiture.
5. Elle est ________ (tomber) dans l'escalier.

✅ Answers:

1. partie
2. arrivées
3. né
4. venus
5. tombée

📝 Exercise 3 — Translate

1. She went to the beach. → ___
2. We (mixed group) arrived at noon. → ___
3. They (f.) stayed at home. → ___
4. He was born in Paris. → ___
5. Did you (tu, f.) go out last night? → ___

✅ Answers:

1. Elle est allée à la plage.
2. Nous sommes arrivés à midi.
3. Elles sont restées à la maison.
4. Il est né à Paris.
5. Tu es sortie hier soir ?

🎯 Today's challenge

Write three pairs of sentences about the same action — once with a male subject, once with a female subject. Notice how the past participle changes. Example: Il est allé au marché. / Elle est allée au marché.

⭐ Key takeaways

• 17 verbs (mostly movement/change) use être instead of avoir in passé composé.
• The past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number — add -e, -s, or -es as needed.
• A memory trick: DR MRS VANDERTRAMP lists all 17 verbs by first letter.