The passé composé with avoir — talking about yesterday
Avoir ("to have") in the present tense · Regular -er verbs in the present tense · Ne … pas — making a sentence negative · Three ways to ask a question
The past tense you will use most. It is built from two pieces:
avoir in the present + the past participle
"J'ai mangé une pizza." — I ate / I have eaten a pizza. "Nous avons regardé un film." — We watched a film.
The participle of a regular verb is predictable:
| Verb type | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -er | -é | parler → parlé |
| -ir | -i | finir → fini |
| -re | -u | attendre → attendu |
To make it negative, ne … pas wraps avoir, not the participle: "Je n'ai pas travaillé hier."
To ask, est-ce que works exactly as before: "Est-ce que tu as dormi ?"
One warning worth having early: French has no separate form for I ate and I have eaten. J'ai mangé is both. Do not look for the difference — it is not there.
What this unlocks
Knowing the rule is not the same as producing it.
This page explains the pattern. The track drills it: the point arrives inside a mini-dialogue, then production marked against a CEFR descriptor, then a module test that returns you to your two weakest sessions if you miss it.