The passé composé with être
The passé composé with avoir — talking about yesterday · Irregular past participles · Reflexive verbs — se lever, se sentir, se reposer
Most verbs form the passé composé with avoir. A small group uses être instead, and you have to know which — there is no way to hear the difference.
"Je suis allé au marché." — I went to the market. "Elle est partie à huit heures." — She left at eight.
The group is small and almost entirely about movement or change of state:
| aller / venir | allé / venu | go / come |
|---|---|---|
| arriver / partir | arrivé / parti | arrive / leave |
| entrer / sortir | entré / sorti | go in / go out |
| monter / descendre | monté / descendu | go up / go down |
| rester | resté | stay |
| tomber | tombé | fall |
| naître / mourir | né / mort | be born / die |
| devenir | devenu | become |
| rentrer / retourner | rentré / retourné | go home / go back |
Every reflexive verb also takes être, with no exceptions: "Je me suis levé tôt." · "Elle s'est reposée."
Negation still wraps the auxiliary, exactly as with avoir: "Je ne suis pas sorti hier soir."
The trap is that rester means to stay — no movement at all — and still takes être, while marcher and voyager are movement and take avoir. The list is not a rule you can derive; treat it as a list.
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.