The Perfect Tense with être and Agreement

Most French verbs form the perfect tense with avoir. But a small, high-frequency group of verbs — mostly about movement or a change of state — uses être instead:

$\text{present of }\hat{e}tre+\text{past participle}$

• Je suis allé au cinéma. → I went to the cinema.
• Elle est arrivée en retard. → She arrived late.
• Ils sont partis à midi. → They left at midday.

There are two things to get right every time with être verbs. First, use the present of être (not avoir) as the auxiliary. Second — and this is the classic exam differentiator — the past participle agrees with the subject, exactly like an adjective.

The auxiliary is être in the present tense:

Subject	être (present)
je	suis
tu	es
il / elle / on	est
nous	sommes
vous	êtes
ils / elles	sont

The être verbs are often learned with the memory aid VANDERTRAMP (or "la maison d'être"):

Verb	Participle	Meaning
aller	allé	to go
venir	venu	to come
arriver	arrivé	to arrive
partir	parti	to leave
entrer	entré	to enter
sortir	sorti	to go out
monter	monté	to go up
descendre	descendu	to go down
rester	resté	to stay
tomber	tombé	to fall
naître	né	to be born
mourir	mort	to die
retourner	retourné	to return
devenir	devenu	to become

Add revenir (revenu — to come back) and rentrer (rentré — to go home), which follow the same rule.

With être verbs the participle behaves like an adjective and agrees with the subject. Add these endings:

Subject	Ending	Example (aller)	English
masculine singular	–	il est allé	he went
feminine singular	-e	elle est allée	she went
masculine plural	-s	ils sont allés	they went (m.)
feminine plural	-es	elles sont allées	they went (f.)

With être, the participle matches the subject in gender and number: -/-e/-s/-es. With avoir there is no subject agreement — that is the key difference between the two auxiliaries.

More worked examples, checked person by person:

• Marie est rentrée tard. → Marie came home late. (feminine singular → -e)
• Les filles sont sorties. → The girls went out. (feminine plural → -es)
• Mes frères sont venus. → My brothers came. (masculine plural, irregular venu → venus)
• Nous sommes restés à la maison. → We stayed at home. (mixed/masculine group → -s)

Several être verbs have irregular participles. They still take the subject-agreement endings on top of the irregular stem.

Infinitive	Participle	Feminine sing.	Meaning
venir	venu	venue	to come
revenir	revenu	revenue	to come back
devenir	devenu	devenue	to become
naître	né	née	to be born
mourir	mort	morte	to die

Worked examples:

• Elle est née en 2008. → She was born in 2008. (née, feminine singular)
• Mon grand-père est mort l'année dernière. → My grandfather died last year.
• Elles sont devenues médecins. → They became doctors. (devenues, feminine plural)

Notice mort takes a -e for the feminine (morte) and -s for the plural (morts / mortes), just like any participle.

Reflexive verbs (with me, te, se, nous, vous, se) always form the perfect tense with être, and the participle usually agrees with the subject.

Subject	se lever (perfect)	English
je	me suis levé(e)	I got up
tu	t'es levé(e)	you got up
il	s'est levé	he got up
elle	s'est levée	she got up
nous	nous sommes levé(e)s	we got up
ils	se sont levés	they got up (m.)
elles	se sont levées	they got up (f.)

• Je me suis couché à dix heures. → I went to bed at ten. (male speaker)
• Elle s'est habillée vite. → She got dressed quickly.
• Ils se sont réveillés tôt. → They woke up early.

The reflexive pronoun comes before être: je me suis, not je suis me.

Negative: wrap ne…pas around être (and the reflexive pronoun stays with it):

• Il n'est pas venu. → He did not come.
• Elle ne s'est pas levée. → She did not get up.

Question by inversion: the auxiliary être comes first — Es-tu allé ? / Est-elle partie ?

To decide avoir or être, ask whether the verb is one of the VANDERTRAMP movement/change verbs or a reflexive. If not, it takes avoir.

Verb	Auxiliary	Example
aller	être	je suis allé (I went)
se laver	être	je me suis lavé (I washed)
manger	avoir	j'ai mangé (I ate)
finir	avoir	j'ai fini (I finished)

1. Using avoir for an être verb

J'ai allé is wrong. Movement verbs like aller take être: je suis allé. Learn the VANDERTRAMP list so you know which verbs switch auxiliary.

2. Forgetting subject agreement

With être the participle must match the subject. A girl writes je suis allée (with -e); a group of girls write elles sont allées (with -es). Dropping these endings loses accuracy marks in Writing and dictation.

3. Over-applying agreement to avoir verbs

Subject agreement is an être rule. Elle a mangée is wrong — with avoir the participle stays mangé unless a direct object precedes it. Keep the two auxiliaries' rules separate.

4. Using avoir with reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs always take être: je me suis levé, never je m'ai levé. The reflexive pronoun sits before the auxiliary être.

5. Misspelling irregular participles

Forms like né, mort, venu are fixed. Write elle est née, il est mort, ils sont venus — do not invent naîté or mouru. Then add the agreement ending on top of the correct stem.