Mission: tell a colleague about your trip
Passé composé with être. The verbs of coming and going take être, and their participle agrees.
FrenchA2 · Telling storiesAbout 5 min: 2 reading, 3 practiceUpdated
- Know the verbs that take être (mostly movement and change of state)
- Form the passé composé with être
- Make the participle agree: elle est allée, ils sont partis
- Choose avoir or être
Telling stories: lesson 2 of 4
- A2 · Telling stories
- Mission: tell a friend about your weekend 6 min
- Mission: tell a colleague about your trip 5 min
- Mission: share a childhood memory 5 min
- Mission: tell your new neighbour how you got here 5 min
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Level Level A2 (around the DELF A2 exam). Real French: telling someone where you went and when you got back.
What it is
Your mission: you're back at work after a trip. Your colleague Thomas asks, « Alors, tu es allé(e) où ? » Tell him where you went, when you left, how long you stayed and when you came home.
About twenty common verbs make the passé composé with être instead of avoir. Most describe moving from one place to another or a change of state:
| Pair | Participles |
|---|---|
| aller / venir (go / come) | allé, venu |
| arriver / partir (arrive / leave) | arrivé, parti |
| entrer / sortir (go in / go out) | entré, sorti |
| monter / descendre (go up / go down) | monté, descendu |
| naître / mourir (be born / die) | né, mort |
| rester (stay), tomber (fall), retourner (go back) | resté, tombé, retourné |
Verbs built on these also take être: revenir, devenir, rentrer (come home).
The participle agrees with the subject, like an adjective: add -e for feminine and -s for plural.
Text description
Present tense of aller: je suis allé(e) (ending -é(e)); tu es allé(e) (ending -é(e)); il / elle est allé / allée (ending -é / allée); nous sommes allé(e)s (ending -é(e)s); vous êtes allé(e)(s) (ending -é(e)(s)); ils / elles sont allés / allées (ending -és / allées).
Quick check
Tap an answer to check it.
Which verb takes être in the passé composé?
- manger takes avoir: j'ai mangé
- faire takes avoir: j'ai fait
Show answer
partir. partir is a verb of movement: je suis parti(e).
Why it matters
Every travel story is full of these verbs: je suis allé(e), nous sommes partis, je suis resté(e) une semaine, nous sommes rentrés. Choosing the wrong helper verb is one of the most noticeable errors at this level.
Worked example
Marie tells Thomas about her holiday:
- En juillet, je suis allée en Bretagne avec mon frère. In July I went to Brittany with my brother.
- Nous sommes partis le 3 et nous sommes arrivés le soir. We left on the 3rd and arrived in the evening.
- Je suis restée dix jours, mais mon frère est rentré après une semaine. I stayed ten days, but my brother came home after a week.
- Un jour, nous avons visité un château. One day we visited a castle. (visiter takes avoir.)
Real French: in speech allé and allée sound the same, so you only see the agreement in writing. Marie writes allée, restée with an extra e because she is a woman; partis, arrivés take -s because "we" is two people (masculine plural for a mixed group).
Common mistake
Using avoir with these verbs: wrong: j'ai allé, wrong: il a parti. Say je suis allé(e), il est parti.
Second: forgetting agreement in writing. Spoken, allé and allée sound the same, but in writing elle est allé is wrong: elle est allée.
More detail: monter, descendre, sortir with an object
When these verbs have a direct object, they take avoir: J'ai monté les valises (I carried the suitcases up), Elle a sorti le chien (She took the dog out). Without an object they take être: Je suis monté(e) (I went up).
Quick check
Tap an answer to check it.
« Mes sœurs … arrivées hier. »
- arriver takes être
- mes sœurs is plural: sont
Show answer
sont. arriver → être; plural: elles sont arrivées.
Key terms
- être verbs
- about twenty verbs of movement or change of state (aller, venir, partir…)
- accord
- agreement: the participle takes -e and -s like an adjective
- rentrer
- to come or go home
- naître / mourir
- to be born / to die (né, mort)
Practise the key terms
Tap a card to turn it over. 4 cards.
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| être verbs | about twenty verbs of movement or change of state (aller, venir, partir…) |
| accord | agreement: the participle takes -e and -s like an adjective |
| rentrer | to come or go home |
| naître / mourir | to be born / to die (né, mort) |
Practice
Sort it
avoir or être?
aller
movementShow answer
être. movement
manger
not movementShow answer
avoir. not movement
arriver
movementShow answer
être. movement
visiter
visiter takes an object: j'ai visité ParisShow answer
avoir. visiter takes an object: j'ai visité Paris
rester
on the être listShow answer
être. on the être list
faire
j'ai faitShow answer
avoir. j'ai fait
naître
change of state: je suis né(e)Show answer
être. change of state: je suis né(e)
Quick quiz
Tap an answer to check it.
« Elle … née en 1990. »
- naître takes être
- naître takes être, not avoir
Show answer
est. naître → elle est née.
Pierre and Anne (mixed group): « Ils sont … »
- A mixed group is masculine plural
- Plural subject: add -s
Show answer
partis. Mixed group → masculine plural: partis.
Build the sentence
Build "We went to Lyon on Saturday." (start with Saturday)
Show answer
Samedi, nous sommes allés à Lyon.. être + agreed participle: nous sommes allés.
Practise speaking
Studyfern has no voice tools of its own. To practise out loud, copy this prompt into a voice-capable AI assistant and talk with it.
Mission role-play. You are Thomas, my French colleague, back at work on a Monday, speaking at level A2. Start with « Alors, tu es allé(e) où ? ». Ask me about my trip, one question at a time: où est-ce que tu es allé(e), quand est-ce que tu es parti(e), tu es resté(e) combien de temps, quand est-ce que tu es rentré(e), qu'est-ce que tu as visité, qu'est-ce que tu as fait. I will answer in full sentences with made-up details. After each answer, tell me in English what kind of mistake I made, if any, and let me try again; watch avoir or être and the agreement. When I have said where I went, when I left, how long I stayed and when I came home, say « Mission accomplie ! » and give me one tip. Keep every reply under 3 sentences.
Listen too. Listen to native speakers before and after: see the free listening and shadowing links.
Good to know. AI feedback on pronunciation is hit and miss, so check yourself against native recordings. Many assistants turn your speech into text first, so a vowel or liaison you got wrong may be silently “heard” as the right word. Don't share personal details: use a made-up name and town.
New to this? Read Practising speaking with an AI.
In short
- Movement and change-of-state verbs take être: aller, venir, partir, arriver, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber…
- The participle agrees with the subject: elle est allée, ils sont partis.
- A mixed group is masculine plural.
- Everything else takes avoir.
Mastery check
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Check yourself
Answer in your head first, then open the answer. Nothing is saved.
How does a woman say "I left"?
Show answer
Je suis partie.
Avoir or être with visiter?
Show answer
avoir: j'ai visité.
How do you say "They (two women) came home"?
Show answer
Elles sont rentrées.
Further reading
- RFI, Journal en français facile: news reports are full of est arrivé, sont partis, est né. Listen for être with movement verbs.
- TV5MONDE, Apprendre le français, free A2 exercises on real clips.
Finished? Mark it done to fill in your leaf on the French map.