Passé Composé with Être

Summary

In this engaging video, Madame Beckwith takes us on a journey through the passé composé using 'être' as an auxiliary verb, which is essential for expressing past actions in French related to movement or state changes. The video outlines the specific verbs that use 'être' instead of 'avoir,' famously remembered by the acronym Doctor and Mrs. Vandertrampp. It also covers the agreement rules for gender and number that affect past participles, making it a must-watch for French learners wanting to master this tricky aspect of French grammar.

Highlights

• Learn how passé composé uses 'être' for movement verbs. 🏃‍♀️
• Discover the verbs requiring 'être': Dr. & Mrs. Vandertrampp. 📚
• Master past participle agreement in gender and number. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
• Conjugate 'être' in the present tense for past tense construction. 🤓
• Capture the nuances of French spontaneity with these tips. 💡

Key Takeaways

• The passé composé can use 'être' as an auxiliary verb! 🎉
• Only certain verbs, such as Dr. & Mrs. Vandertrampp verbs, use 'être.' 🤔
• Agreeing past participles with the subject's gender and number is key! 👫
• Regular ER verbs form past participles with 'é,' IR verbs with 'i,' and some irregular ones have unique forms. 🔤
• Understanding movement verbs helps with mastering 'être' auxiliary use! 🚶‍♂️

Overview

Madame Beckwith introduces a key element of French grammar—the passé composé using 'être' as an auxiliary verb. This method is crucial when dealing with verbs that indicate movement or a change in state. By guiding us through the Dr. & Mrs. Vandertrampp verbs, Madame Beckwith helps simplify the complexity of choosing the right auxiliary verb for certain actions in French. Her engaging style makes the topic accessible and exciting for all learners.

The video clearly explains the formation of past participles for regular ER and IR verbs, as well as tackling the irregular ones. Madame Beckwith emphasizes the importance of matching these participles in gender and number with the subject. This lesson serves not just as a grammar guide but as a narrative of movement and action—key themes in mastering the French language's intricacies.

By the end of the video, viewers are equipped with the tools to construct sentences that correctly use 'être' as their auxiliary verb in the passé composé. This is particularly useful for discussing activities involving movement. Madame Beckwith’s practical tips, combined with her approachable teaching method, provide a foundation for continuing one’s journey in French language fluency.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Passé Composé with Être The chapter introduces the concept of using 'être' as an auxiliary verb in forming the passé composé tense in French. It contrasts this with the previously learned method of using 'avoir' as an auxiliary verb. The example 'I ate a crepe' is given to demonstrate using 'avoir', and the chapter sets the stage for explaining how 'être' changes the construction of past tense sentences.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Example and Explanation of Usage This chapter provides an example of verb usage, focusing on auxiliary verbs. It explains how specific verbs use a different auxiliary verb, highlighting verbs that fall under the acronym 'doctor and Mrs'.
• 01:00 - 02:30: List of Verbs Using Être In this chapter, the focus is on verbs that use 'être' instead of 'avoir' in the passé composé. These verbs include 'descendre' (to descend), 'revenir' (to come back), 'mourir' (to die), 'rester' (to stay), 'sortir' (to go out), 'venir' (to come), 'aller' (to go).
• 02:30 - 03:00: Illustration and Memory Aid This chapter explores the interplay between visual aids, particularly illustrations, and memory retention. It discusses various verbs and their conjugations in a specific language context. The nuances between entering, re-entering, going home, falling, returning, arriving, climbing, and leaving are examined to showcase the complexity and subtly different meanings among verb forms and their uses in enhancing memory and learning.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Conjugation of Être in Present Tense The chapter discusses the conjugation of the French verb 'être' in the present tense, particularly in relation to movements such as coming and going. It mentions a helpful illustration involving a character going through different stages such as being born (NE), going (Ali), going up (Monte), and arriving.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Building Sentences with Passé Composé using Être The chapter discusses constructing sentences using the passé composé with the auxiliary verb 'être'. It highlights verbs that typically use 'être' such as 'enter', 'pass', 'stay', 'leave', 'exit', 'go down', 'fall', and 'die'. It includes a note for the reader to take a screenshot for reference.
• 04:00 - 05:30: Constructing Past Participles The chapter titled 'Constructing Past Participles' focuses on the methods required to conjugate verbs in the present tense so that they can be used in the past tense form, particularly in the context of 'P compos' which involves the verb 'to be'. It highlights the conjugation of 'to be' in the present tense: I am, you are, he/she/one is, we are, you are, they are. The chapter emphasizes the importance of correctly forming these conjugations as a foundation for constructing past participles.
• 05:30 - 07:30: Agreement in Gender and Number This chapter explores the concept of agreement in gender and number in French grammar. The focus is on understanding how auxiliary verbs and past participles interact in sentences. An example given is 'I went to the cafeteria,' highlighting the use of the auxiliary verb. The explanation is aimed at illustrating how past participles must agree in gender and number with the subjects of the sentences, using specific examples to demonstrate these rules in practical contexts.
• 07:30 - 08:00: Conclusion In the 'Conclusion' chapter, the discussion centers around past participles and their uses. The chapter provides examples, such as using 'Ali,' meaning 'went' or 'gone,' to form sentences like 'I have gone to the cafeteria.' Another example discussed involves the verb 'enter,' as in 'They have entered the classroom.' These examples illustrate the grammatical structure of auxiliary verbs paired with past participles.

Passé Composé with Être Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey guys today we're going to talk about with so before we learned how to express things in the past by using with as in I ate a crepe and here is our auxiliary verb or our helping verb AV now we're going to learn how to say things in the past that require us to use instead is our verb to be so here's
• 00:30 - 01:00 an example of what that will look like I went to the cinema and you'll notice that instead of a we use which is the verb there are only a handful of verbs that take instead of Av as the auxiliary verb we can call them doctor and Mrs
• 01:00 - 01:30 Vander so this is the list of verbs that take instead of Av we have Des to descend to come back to die to stay to go out V to come Ali to go
• 01:30 - 02:00 to be born to become Entre to enter R to reenter or to go home to fall to return AR to arrive mon to climb and to leave so you may have noticed from the previous list that all of those verbs
• 02:00 - 02:30 have something to do with coming and going it has something to do with moving around in space about going somewhere or coming back somewhere and there's this little um illustration that helped me when I was learning this in high school French so we have this little guy he's born NE he goes Ali he goes up Monte he arrives and comes
• 02:30 - 03:00 AR he enters Entre he passes through he stays R he leaves he exits he goes down he falls and he dies so if you want to take a little screenshot of this picture that might be helpful I'll make a fun face for you too okay so if we're going to use as our auxil ilary verb then we're going to
• 03:00 - 03:30 have to remember how to conjugate it we'll conjugate it in the present tense to use it as part of this past tense the P compos with so to be I am a you are he is she is on one is we are you are they are and El
• 03:30 - 04:00 they are feminine so just like with comp with a using p compos with we have two parts our auxiliary verb which is and our our past participle so let's take a look our first example I went to the cafeteria here's our auxiliary verb at
• 04:00 - 04:30 and then we have our past participle Ali which means went or gone so I have gone I went or I have gone to the cafeteria our next our next example class they entered the classroom again we have our auxiliary verb and then our past participle Entre they have entered or they entered the CL
• 04:30 - 05:00 classroom okay so let's make some past participles so that we'll be able to use both the auxiliary verb and our past participle with each and every one of our Dr Mr Vander verbs so for er verbs just like normal we're going to take off the eer and add so we get Ali or Entre
• 05:00 - 05:30 for ir verbs like and we are going to take off the IR and add an i for party or and all the other ir verbs in our list except for anything like V so V instead of taking off the IR and adding an i we add a u so we
• 05:30 - 06:00 get and that includes any verb that contains the word so to become we get V became and then re to come back we get come back and then for net to be born and to die we have these irregular forms and
• 06:00 - 06:30 so uh something special about P compose with e is that we have to have agreement in gender and number between the past participle and the noun that it describes so just like an adjective so if we have someone who's masculine that we're talking about in our sentence and we say he went then we don't have any change just like with adjectives we don't add any
• 06:30 - 07:00 we just have our past participle of the verb we've taken off the E and we've added but if we have someone who's feminine she went just like with adjectives we're going to add an e to the end of this past participle okay doesn't sound any different but it's spelled differently for masculine plural things we're going to add an S again it doesn't sound any different
• 07:00 - 07:30 but we have to agree in gender and number and since this is plural we have to add an S here okay they went and for feminine plural they went a group of girls went we're going to do agreement for gender they're girls so we're going to add an e and agreement for number this plural so we're going to add an S so hopefully today's video has has helped you to
• 07:30 - 08:00 understand how we use um compose with for verbs in the past tense when we're talking about coming and going as always if you have any questions at all please let me know