Goal
You’ll be able to identify which verbs use être instead of avoir as their passé composé auxiliary, and understand the genuine pattern connecting this specific group of verbs.
Learn
A specific, limited set of French verbs — mostly describing movement or a change of state — use être as their passé composé auxiliary instead of avoir. This is a genuinely important, French-specific detail with no direct equivalent in Spanish’s preterite:
je suis allé(e) (I went) elle est arrivée (she arrived) ils sont partis (they left)
Common être verbs include: aller (to go), venir (to come), arriver (to arrive), partir (to leave), entrer (to enter), sortir (to exit), naître (to be born), mourir (to die) — many English-teaching materials group these using the mnemonic DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP, each letter representing one of these verbs.
A genuinely important additional structural difference: with être verbs, the past participle actually agrees in gender and number with the subject, unlike avoir verbs’ fixed, unchanging participle — il est allé (he went) versus elle est allée (she went, with an extra -e), and ils sont allés (they went, masculine/mixed plural, with an extra -s).
Decision Task
You want to say “she arrived,” using arriver (an être verb). Before reading on: does the past participle arrivé stay unchanged, or does it need to agree with “she” in some way?
Show Answer
It needs to agree — elle est arrivée, with an extra -e added to match the feminine subject “she.” This is genuinely different from avoir verbs (Part 4.1), where the past participle never changes regardless of subject; être verbs specifically require this gender/number agreement.
Common Mistake
Treating être-verb past participles the same as avoir-verb participles, assuming they stay fixed and unchanged regardless of subject. Être verbs genuinely require participle agreement with the subject’s gender and number, a real structural difference from the avoir pattern covered in the previous lesson.
Practice Questions
1. Form the passé composé of aller for “il” (he went).
Show Answer
il est allé
2. Form the passé composé of aller for “elle” (she went) — how does it differ from the “il” form?
Show Answer
elle est allée — an extra -e is added to agree with the feminine subject.
3. Name three verbs that use être as their passé composé auxiliary.
Show Answer
Any three of: aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, naître, mourir.
4. What genuinely important structural difference exists between être-verb and avoir-verb past participles?
Show Answer
Être-verb participles agree in gender and number with the subject; avoir-verb participles stay fixed and unchanged regardless of subject.
5. What does the mnemonic DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP help remember?
Show Answer
A list of common verbs that use être (not avoir) as their passé composé auxiliary.
Try It Yourself
Without looking back, form the passé composé of partir (to leave) for “ils” (they left, masculine/mixed plural), applying the correct participle agreement.
Show Answer
ils sont partis — sont (être, “ils” form) plus partis, with the extra -s agreeing with the plural subject.
Quick Check
1. What kind of verbs typically use être as their passé composé auxiliary?
Show Answer
Verbs of movement or change of state.
2. Name one common être verb.
Show Answer
Any of: aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, naître, mourir.
3. Do être-verb past participles change to match the subject?
Show Answer
Yes, in gender and number.
4. Do avoir-verb past participles change to match the subject?
Show Answer
No, they stay fixed.
5. What extra letter is typically added to a past participle to agree with a feminine subject?
Show Answer
-e