Goal: To expand understanding of the past and future tenses by using the futur simple and passé composé with être. 

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When you are quite certain that an event will happen in the future, use the future tense described in lesson 8. When you are less certain, use the futur simple.

The simple future usually uses the infinitive (unconjugated) form of a verb as its base; this is the case for almost all regular verbs. (Regular verbs ending in e, such as "rendre," drop the e when in the futur simple.) To this base we add the following simple future endings, which are akin to conjugations of avoir:

 Take note that the verbs listed in the above chart (finir, aimer, regarder, dormir, changer, and étudier) are all regular.

The simple future is akin to the future tense with "will" or "shall" in English. Therefore,

je finirai = I will finish
tu aimeras = you will like
elle regardera = she will look
nous dormirons = we will sleep
vous changerez = you will change
ils étudieront = they will study

In English, if you will most certainly dance, you might say, "I will dance." If you are less certain, you might say, "I'm going to dance." However, it's the other way in French. It is more definate that you will dance if you say "Je vais danser" than if you say "Je danserai."

When irregular verbs are involved, the simple future becomes a little more complicated. Some irregular verbs use special future stems. Here is a list of some such verbs:

As noted in lesson 8, the past tense is known in French as "le passé composé," or "the composed past." It is a composed tense in that it is comprised of two parts:  a helping verb conjugation, and a past participle.  The helping verb may be either "avoir" (to have) or "être" (to be). On this page, you will learn the passé composé with "être." To learn the passé composé with avoir, review lesson 8.

Only 17 verbs are conjugated with être.  These verbs are: aller, arriver, descendre, devenir, entrer, monter, mourir, naître, partir, passer, rentrer, rester, retourner, revenir, sortir, tomber, venir.

You may choose to remember these verbs in several ways.  One way is the "Vandertramp" method, shown below.  When in this order, the first letter of each infinitive verb spells out "Dr. & Mrs. P. Vandertramp."  Also given are translations and past participles for these verbs.

Infinitive	Past Participle	Translation
Devenir	devenu	to become
Rester	resté	to stay; to remain (NOT "to rest")
Monter	monté	to go up; to climb
Revenir	revenu	to come back; to return
Sortir	sorti	to go out
Passer	passé	to go by; to pass by
Venir	venu	to come
Arriver	arrivé	to arrive
Naître	né	to be born
Descendre	descendu	to go down; to descend
Entrer	entré	to enter; to go in; to come in
Retourner	retourné	to go back; to return
Tomber	tombé	to fall
Rentrer	rentré	to come back; to return
Aller	allé	to go
Mourir	mort	to die
Partir	parti	to leave (a place)

Another way to remember the Vandertramp verbs is by remembering their past participles, which are given by the following rhyme:

Entré, rentré, arrivé,
Resté, monté, né, allé,
Tombé, mort, et retourné
(These are words we all can say)

Parti, sorti, descendu,
Revenu, devenu, et venu
(These verbs with être are "conjugués"
When in the passé composé.)

 You might notice that this rhyme has one less verb than "Dr. & Mrs. P. Vandertramp."  This missing verb is "passer," which is conjugated with BOTH avoir and être.  Passer has three meanings.  When it means "to spend time" or "to take a test," it is conjugated with avoir.  When it means "to pass by," it is conjugated with être.

To form the passé composé with être, replace the original verb conjugation with the appropriate conjugation of être and insert the past participle (see above) form of the original verb after it. Although these two steps are very similar to those used with avoir, there is one major complication when forming the passé composé with être:

When using être in the passé composé, the past participle must agree in both gender and plurality with the subject.

For example, consider the following sentences.

Il va chez Marc. 
becomes 
Il est allé chez Marc.

The listed past participle, allé, is used without modification because the subject is masculine and singular, and all past participles in their raw form are masculine and singular.  But all examples are not this simple.  The following sentence is the opposite extreme from a modification standpoint:

Elles vont à la banque. 
becomes 
Elles sont allées à la banque.

Two letters were added to the past participle "allé" in order to make it agree with the feminine, plural subject.  First, the letter e was added to make "allée," the singular feminine form.  Then, an s was added to form "allées," which is both feminine AND plural, just like the subject.  Consider the following examples of agreement:

Nous partons.
becomes 
Nous sommes partis.

Elle sort le soir. 
becomes 
Elle est sortie le soir.

Ils reviennent à 6h30. 
becomes 
Ils sont revenus à 6h30.

Vous venez voir le professeur. 
becomes 
Vous êtes venus voir le professeur.

There is one final complication.  Some of the Vandertramp verbs (namely monter, descendre, sortir, passer, rentrer, and retourner) can be followed by a direct object.  A direct object answers the Who or What of a verb.  Consider the following sentence:

I walked the dog.

The subject of the sentence performed an action upon an object, answering the question What.  -"What did you walk?"  -"I walked the dog."  Here are some more English examples, with direct objects in blue:

We saw Hélène.
They took a test.
Someone will meet him.

In these sentences "Hélène" and "him" answer the question Who, while "a test" answers What.  In French, direct objects have much the same usage.

 Whenever a verb is followed by a direct object, it uses avoir when in the passé composé, NOT être.

Remember the four steps:

Make sure the verb is a Vandertramp verb and is not followed by a direct object.

Insert the appropriate conjugation of "être"

Replace the original verb with a special past tense form

Make the past participle agree with the subject in gender and number