Which Auxiliary? Être or Avoir

How can we know when to use “to be” or “to have” as an Auxiliary verb when using the

Perfect or the Plu-perfect tenses in French?

It is quite simple, Sir Wolf!

Yep! Most verbs use “to have” as the

Auxiliary verb. Only a very small

number of verbs use “to be”.

Would you mind very

much telling me which

verbs use the Auxiliary

“to be” then?

They tend to be verbs expressing

a movement.

Careful, though!Some of these

verbs are irregular.

I will give you the complete list in the next two pages although the

irregular verbs will be dealt with in another lesson.

Aller to go i fyndVenir to come i ddodRevenir to come back i ddod yn ôlDevenir to become i ddod neu i fyndPartir to leave i adaelSortir to go out i fynd allanNaître to be born ganwydMourir to die i farw

Darling, give us the list of IRREGULAR verbs

using the Auxiliary “to be”.

Arriver to arrive i gyrraeddDescendre to go down i fynd i lawrEntrer to go in i ddod i mewnMonter to go up i fynd i fynyRentrer to go home i fynd adrefRetourner to return i ddychwelydTomber to fall i ddisgynPasser par to go through i fynd trwy

Chérie, give us the list of REGULAR verbs

using the Auxiliary “to be”.

Hum!!There is a little problem with verbs using “to be” as the

Auxiliary verb

What is it, Porky?

When using the Auxiliary “to be”, the Past Participle form of the Active Verb MUST AGREE in Gender and Number with the Person or Thing doing the

Action.

Mama mia, what does all this

jargon mean?

The Number means that one or more than one person or thing is doing the action

The Gender means that the person or thing doing the action is either

Masculine or FeminineGee! Let’s see on the

next slide how this applies to the Past

Participle of the Active Verb

“MUST AGREE”, means that the

ending of the verb changes depending on these 2 factors

entrje

il

elle

nous

vous

ils

elles

Passé composé

é(e)

Plus-que-Parfait

tu

suis

entr é(e)es

entr éest

entr éeest

entr é(e)ssommes

entr é(e)sêtes

entr éssont

entr éessont

entrJ’

il

elle

nous

vous

ils

elles

é(e)

tu

étais

entr é(e)étais

entr éétait

entr éeétait

entr é(e)sétions

entr é(e)sétiez

entr ésétaient

entr éesétaient

Let’s use for example a typical ER verb, ENTRER

Add an “e” when a feminine subject does the action

Add an “s” when more than one does the action

Ready for a little bit of practice? Click the pigs

and the house.

Passé composé

Plus-que-Parfait Quiz