Passé composé Puns

I have a good understanding of what indirect and direct pronouns are, and where to put them in a present-tense sentence, but the one thing that always has me stumbling is knowing the order of these pronouns in passé composé when you add an auxiliary verb into the mix.

eg:

Just a direct pronoun:

”Vous m’avez aider” You helped me. (Here my brain automatically thinks it should be “vous avez m’aider”)

Add in an indirect pronoun and maybe an adverb, and I’m struggling even more with putting things in the right order

”Je lui l'ai encore montré” ”Je le lui ai encore montré” I showed it to him again

(my brain: “ah shit, which pronoun goes first? Where does the ‘ai’ go again?” panic ensues)

On top of that add in some negation and I’m close to giving up on French all together!

“Je ne lui l'ai pas donné” I didn’t give it to him

How did you guys learn to remember the right pronoun order without being stranded mid-conversation doing mental gymnastics or trying to memorise diagrams your French teacher gave you?? It seems simple on paper but despite all my practice it still always trips me up!

Thanks!

I’m trying to say “I congratulated them” in French, and Google Translate quickly told me that it’s « Je les ai félicités ». Why is there an S at the end of félicités? It’s avoir not être. I would’ve initially thought it would be « Je les ai félicité » because it’s I or me that is doing the action. Is there a different rule when using COD or is Google wrong? If someone can explain and offer a different example I’d appreciate it. Thank you!

https://vocaroo.com/1dinQyGgDli6

C'est un dialogue dans mon livre de conversation en français. je l'ai un peu modifié.

>A: Oh là à ! Qu'est-ce qui t'est arrivé ?
>
>B: Je me suis cassé le bras.
>
>A: Je vois. Comment tu as fait ça ?
>
>B: C'est vraiment bête, je suis tombée dans l'escalier.
>
>A: Dans l'escalier ?!
>
>B: Mais oui, samedi dernier, je suis descendue pour faire mes courses, j'étais assez pressée. J'ai raté une marche et je me suis retrouvée un étage plus bas. Maintenant, j'ai le bras dans le plâtre pour quatre semaines ...
>
>A: Oh ma pauvre ! Si tu as besoin de quelque chose n'hésitez pas à m'appeler, je suis là toute la journée.
>
>B: Merci, je ne dis pas non.

I was reading an article on Le Figaro and the article started off with this sentence ‘vendredi dernier il mourrait....’ and I was curious to know why the imperfect for ‘mourir’ was used instead of the passé composé. I always get confused between when to use the imparfait and when to use the passé composé and this example has me very muddled! Merci d’avance pour votre aide :)

I am looking for a book with some practice exercises

Are there any other verbs (other than the 17 well known ones) that use être as the auxiliary verb in the non reflexive passé composé?

They both use "have and be" as their auxiliary verbs although german sein is used with +50 verbs whereas in french, être is used only with 17 verbs. And their textbook explanations sound very similar so I wonder if there is any difference between them, in terms of meaning

¡Hola todo el mundo! Necesito ayudar entre francés y español.

I hope that’s right. I speak French and Spanish is my second Latin language. I am having a problem between equivalent past tenses, and I am hoping the community can confirm/clarify my thinking (because I may need to revise how I approach the past tense in Spanish).

Pretérito vs Passé Simple

Conjugation-wise, these two tenses are similar, but the uses are quite different. The passé simple is a literary tense, and I’ve never heard it spoken aloud outside of academia or as a joke. It is rarely used nowadays. It’s used for a complete action in the past.

The pretérito is more commonly used in Spanish, and is used to express a completed action in the past.

Perfecto de Indicativo vs. Passé Composé

Again, conjugation-wise, the two tenses are similar. The perfecto is used to indicate an action completed in the past but not at a specific time or the time is irrelevant.

In French, the passé composé is used to express completed actions in the past, regardless of time. So the following would be an accurate translation:

J’ai parlé. I spoke. I have spoken. I did speak.

My understanding of the perfecto is more along the lines as follows:

He hablado. I have spoken.

Pretérito vs. Perfecto de indicativo

Pretérito is used to express a completed action in the past that occurred within some definite time frame. It is used often to express the past.

Hablé. I spoke. I did speak.

Perfecto is used to indicate a completed action in the past but the time frame is indefinite or irrelevant. It is commonly used.

He hablado. I have spoken.

But to say “I had spoken,” you’d use pretérito perfecto and say “Hubo hablado.” This is a more literary tense.

——-

Is my understanding accurate?

Bonjour r/French,

I suppose I never "properly" learned the conjugations for the passé simple, but over time I've come to recognize them when reading a book in French. My understanding, at least for now, is that it's the literary equivalent of the passé composé.

However, recently I have been reading the French translation of Never Let Me Go (Auprès de moi toujours) by Kazuo Ishiguro, and there is definitely a lot of mixing of the two tenses going on. Previously, I can only recall seeing the passé composé in dialogue between characters. Can any native speakers shine some light on what's going on? Is there a subtle difference between usage of the two tenses that I'm not aware of?

Also, would it be seen as "weird" for a book to be exclusively written in the passé composé?

Merci beaucoup !

Edit: voici quelques exemples

En réponse, Clair a dit « J'étais en France pendant deux ans. Quand je suis arrivée je ne parle pas bien français. Dans mon région, personne ne parle pas d'anglais donc j'avais besoin d'apprendre français. C'était dur ,mais je persévérais et j'ai reçu mon bac. »

Quand je te demanderais: Qu'est-ce que tu a fait en vacances? Qu'est-ce que tu a fait aujourd'hui? Quel forme tu utiliserais?

Will i just learn naturally eventually with experience? No method of teaching it seems to make sense to me

What is a good strategy in order to determine when to use which form?

I'm reading a translation of Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King. It's nice because there's only passé composé instead of passé simple since it's written as a person speaking in 1st person the entire novel. I like this because it's better input for the way people almost always speak.

Do you know of any novels (preferably originally written in French and modern) that use passé composé instead of passé simple?

Bonjour:

Est-ce que les actionnaires ont fait une nouvelle offre d'achat lorsque les indicateurs de rendement

ont été approuvés?

Why ont été is correct to be used in this sentence and ont étés is wrong?

Merci.

Hey, when you would say "I stayed in this hotel for my last vacation." or "I went to this country for my last vacation." would you use passé composé or imparfait? Thanks!!

Par exemple: j'ai observé que les employés travaillent pas bien.

Hello! So I am having some trouble relating to whether or not the verbs in the passé composé agree with the subject. I know that usually verbs that take avoir don't agree and verbs that take être usually do. But why, for example, is it "Ils se sont téléphoné" while it is also "Ils se sont embrassés." How come the first one doesn't agree? Thank you!

It’s S O difficult for me! I can’t wrap my head around it at all! I’m A1, will test for A2 on 2 Février and the more conjugations I learn, the less I retain.

I’ve asked my boyfriend (who is French) to help and he has tried many times but has resulted to, ‘you just kind of get used to hearing it said a bunch it times.’

What am I missing here? Is there an easy way to memorise this? What has helped you learn the rules behind passé composé? I really really am not getting it.

Like why was it those verbs and how did certain verbs come to use either one?

Bonjour! I have a Production Orale for Passé Composé in 2 days. It would be nice if someone could double check this :) (especially the comments I have in brackets as I'm not sure) Merci d'avance!

J: Qu’est-ce que tu as fait le week-end dernier?

C: Le week-end dernier, ma famille et moi sommes allés au centre commercial. J’ai fait du shopping et nous avons dîné dans mon restaurant préféré. Après le dîner, nous avons regardé un film au cinema et nous avons visité ma grand-mére.

J: Si mouvementé!

C: Bien sûr, tu me connais. (I also don't know if this sounds casual or it's too literal*)* Et toi? Qu’est-ce que tu as fait le week-end dernier?

J: Le week-end dernier, ma famille et moi sommes allés à la plage parce qu'il faisait beau. Je suis allé nager et après, j'ai pris un bain de soleil. Je me suis promené (can someone explain why it's je me suis here is it because it's reflexive?) dans le parc aussi. Dans le parc, j'ai pique-niqué (should I use eu pique-nique or this?) avec mon copain.

C: C’est super!

J: Tu t’es (or as?) reposé le week-end dernier?

C: Non, je ne me suis pas reposée le week-end dernier. J’ai étudie pour un test, j’ai nettoyé ma chambre, j’ai lavé mon chien Demi, et j’ai acheté des ingrédients au supermarché.

J: Oh, vraiment? (I don't know if people really say this, if you're a native speaker could you give me a phrase that's like oh really? Is ouai applicable here?)

C: Oui! Et toi, tu t’es reposé le week-end dernier?

J: Oui, j'ai lu de nombreux livres. J'ai joué avec mes animaux. J'ai aussi joué à des jeux vidéo. J'ai mangé et bien sûr j'ai beaucoup dormi!

C: J'aimerais pouvoir me reposer comme toi le week-end prochain! Au revoir.

J: Au revoir.

sorry if this is a stupid question, this phrase is confusing me a little. an example is J'aurais aimé avoir plus de temps pour parler avec elle. which I think means "I would have liked to have more time to talk to her"

"aurais" is a conjugation for "avoir", and there is "avoir" itself right after aimé, so is this Passé composé? I thought the second "avoir" always becomes "eu" in Passé composé so I am a little confused.

also, I am reading in online articles that "aurais" is actually used for future tense, even though this phrase is past tense (I think), so that is also confusing

Si on utilise le passé composé dans une phrase complex (en anglais - "a compound sentence"), est-ce qu'on utilise l'auxiliaire deux fois?

Par exemple, qu'est-ce que la phrase correcte?

"J'ai mangé et ai chanté," ou "J'ai mangé et chanté"?

Merci à tous.

Salut!

We've gotten the task to put the verbs of a small text in the right time and form. Could someone please check the text I have written? I really struggle with french but I gave it my best.

Thanks A LOT in advance. :)

Cette année, Fabien et moi, nous (passer) avons passé trois semaine à Bastia. Nous (arriver) sommes arrivées un samedi matin. Il y (avoir) avait beaucoup de tourists qui (venir) venaient d’Allemagne. Pendant que Fabien (chercher) cherchait l’hotel, je/j (regarder) regardais les gens, les boutiques et la plage. Il y (avoir) avait une bonne ambience les gens (être) étaient dans les cafés et (boire) buvaient un verre. Dix minute après, Fabien (revenir) a revenue, nous (mettre) avons mis nos affairs dans notre chambre et puis nous (aller) sommes allées à la plage. Il y (avoir) avait beaucoup de monde et il (ne pas être) ne était pas facile de trouver une bonne place. Après la plage, on (retourner) est retournées en ville. Tout à coup je/j (voir) j’ai vu notre prof d’Allemagne. Incroyable ! On lui (dire) a dit bonjour, on (entrer) est entrées dans un café et on (prendre) a pris un verre ensemble.

My Larousse dictionary app (great app!) gives these two examples sentences for "auberge":

il n'est pas sorti de l'auberge

on n'est pas sortis de l'auberge

I keep being confused about the nuances of using "on" to mean "we". I thought (apparently wrongly) that, even though the *meaning* is plural, the word is treated as singular gramatically. But then, what's that "s" doing at the end of "sortis"? On the other hand, if "on" is being treated as plural, why isn't it "on ne sont pas sortis de l'auberge" (which I know is ridiculous)?

Enlightenment on this issue in particular, and on the use of "on" for "we" in general (agreement, etc.) would be gratefully appreciated.

Par exemple: j'ai observé que les employés travaillent pas bien.

(Ici, 《j'ai observé》est en passé composé et 《les employés travaillent pas bien》est en prèsent)