Auxiliary Verbs French Grammar Glossary

The auxiliary verb  stands in front of the main verb in a  compound tense  to indicate mood and tense. In French, its either avoir or à ªtre.  Conjugation of the auxiliary, or helping, verb determines the subject, tense  and mood of the main verb. All French verbs are classified by which auxiliary verb they take, and they use the same auxiliary verb in all  compound tenses. Avoir or  Ãƒâ€°tre Most French verbs  use  avoir. A much smaller number (and their derivatives) require à ªtre. The verbs that use  Ãƒ ªtre  are intransitive verbs that indicate a certain kind of movement: aller  Ã‚  to goarriver  Ã‚  to arrivedescendre  Ã‚  to descend / go downstairsentrer  Ã‚  to entermonter  Ã‚  to climbmourir  Ã‚  to dienaà ®tre  Ã‚  to be bornpartir  Ã‚  to leavepasser  Ã‚  to passrester  Ã‚  to stayretourner  Ã‚  to returnsortir  Ã‚  to go outtomber  Ã‚  to fallvenir  Ã‚  to come Use a Mnemonic Device to Remember Verbs That Take  Ãƒâ€°tre Until youve memorized all 14 verbs, you might want to use a mnemonic device such as ADVENT.   Each letter in ADVENT stands for one of the verbs and its opposite, plus the extra verbs Passer and Retourner, for a total of 14. Arriver - PartirDescendre - MonterVenir - AllerEntrer - SortirNaà ®tre - MourirTomber - ResterExtra: Passer and Retourner   More  Ãƒâ€°tre in Compound Tenses 1.  Ãƒâ€°tre  is  also used as an auxiliary verb with  pronominal verbs:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je me suis levà ©.   I got up.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il sest rasà ©.   He shaved. 2.  For verbs conjugated with  Ãƒ ªtre, the past participle has to  agree  with the subject in gender and number in all compound tenses:   Il est allà ©.   He went.  Elle est allà ©e.   She went.Ils sont allà ©s.   They went.      Elles sont allà ©es.   They went. 3.  Verbs conjugated with  Ãƒ ªtre  are intransitive, meaning they have no direct object. However, six of these verbs can be used transitively (with a direct object) and their meaning changes slightly. When this happens, avoir becomes their auxiliary verb. For example: Passer   Ã‚  Ã‚  Je suis passà © devant le parc.   I went by the park.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jai passà © la porte.   I went through the door.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jai passà © une heure ici.   I spent an hour here. Rentrer (a derivative of entrer)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Je suis rentrà ©.   I came home.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jai rentrà © les chaises.   I brought the chairs inside. Retourner   Ã‚  Ã‚  Elle est retournà ©e en France.   She has returned to France.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Elle a retournà © la lettre.   She returned/sent back the letter Semi-Auxiliary Verbs In addition to auxiliary verbs, French has a number of semi-auxiliary verbs, such as aller, devoir and faire, which are conjugated and followed by an infinitive. They express various nuances of time, mood or aspect. Some semi-auxiliary verbs are equivalent to  modal verbs  in English and some are  verbs of perception. For example:   Je suis allà © voir mon frà ¨re.   I went to see my brother.  Il est parti à ©tudier en Italie.   He went to study in Italy.Jai dà » partir.   I had to leave.Jai fait laver la voiture.   I had the car washed.Je suis venu aider.   Ive come to help.