Qu'est-ce que vous avez fait ?
Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Form the passé composé with avoir for regular and common irregular verbs.
- Choose the correct past participle for -er, -ir, and -re verbs, and for a set of high-frequency irregular verbs.
- Ask and answer questions about what someone did, using qu'est-ce que and est-ce que with the passé composé.
- Use ne... pas correctly with the passé composé.
- Recognize common time expressions used with completed past events, such as hier and la semaine dernière.
- Understand short spoken and written accounts of a person's recent activities.
- Narrate, in speech and in writing, a short account of what you did recently.
- Apply accurate pronunciation and spelling of past participles, and maintain established subject-pronoun liaison with avoir.
Communication Scenario
Léa's internship has now begun. On Monday morning, she runs into her friend Sophie, who wants to hear everything about the first week: what Léa did at work, whether she visited any new places, what she ate for lunch with her colleagues, and how her weekend went. This chapter opens Unit IV by giving you the tools to describe many common completed actions using verbs that form the passé composé with avoir. Chapter 17 will add verbs that use être, so that you can narrate an even wider range of past events.
- Ask someone what they did.
- Describe completed actions from a recent day or week.
- Talk about a first day at an internship or job.
- Answer questions about a past event using oui or non with correct negation.
Core Vocabulary
This chapter's productive vocabulary is almost entirely made of verbs you already know from earlier chapters, now used in the passé composé. A few new time expressions are introduced to anchor past-time narration.
| French | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| hier | yesterday | often opens a narration |
| hier soir | last night | fixed expression |
| la semaine dernière | last week | dernier/dernière follows the noun here |
| le week-end dernier | last weekend | fixed expression |
| ce matin | this morning | usable for a completed morning event |
| déjà | already | placed between avoir and the past participle |
| pas encore | not yet | ne... pas surrounds the conjugated avoir, and encore follows pas: je n'ai pas encore mangé |
| Infinitive | Past participle | English |
|---|---|---|
| travailler | travaillé | worked |
| manger | mangé | ate |
| parler | parlé | spoke |
| finir | fini | finished |
| choisir | choisi | chose |
| attendre | attendu | waited |
| répondre | répondu | answered |
| avoir | eu | had |
| être | été | was/were |
| faire | fait | did/made |
| voir | vu | saw |
| prendre | pris | took |
All other vocabulary in this chapter is recycled from Chapters 1–15. No vocabulary domain beyond what is listed above is introduced as productive.
Pronunciation Focus
Regular -er past participles end in written -é, pronounced /e/: travaillé and parlé end in a clearly pronounced closed [e] sound. The accented vowel is pronounced, but there is no additional final consonant sound. Regular -ir past participles end in -i, pronounced /i/ (fini, choisi), and regular -re past participles end in -u, pronounced /y/ (attendu, répondu). None of these final vowels is followed by a pronounced consonant in ordinary speech.
This chapter reviews the subject-pronoun liaison you already know rather than introducing a new liaison rule. Continue to link nous‿avons, vous‿avez, ils‿ont, and elles‿ont, exactly as you practiced with other vowel-initial words in earlier chapters. This is liaison between the subject pronoun and avoir; it does not mean that every conjugated auxiliary automatically links to the past participle that follows it. Elision is also active in j'ai and je n'ai pas.
Grammar: Le passé composé avec avoir
Purpose: describe completed actions and events in the past using a conjugated form of avoir plus a past participle.
16.1 Form: avoir + past participle
The passé composé with avoir has two parts: a present-tense form of avoir (the auxiliary, or helping verb) and a past participle. Most French verbs use avoir as their auxiliary; a smaller group uses être, which you will learn in Chapter 17.
- J'ai travaillé toute la journée. I worked all day. j'ai [aux.] + travaillé [participle]
- Elle a fini son rapport. She finished her report.
16.2 Regular past participles
16.3 Common irregular past participles
A small set of very frequent verbs have irregular past participles that must be learned individually. You have already met all the verbs below.
| Infinitive | Past participle |
|---|---|
| avoir | eu |
| être | été |
| faire | fait |
| voir | vu |
| prendre | pris |
16.4 Conjugating avoir + participle
Only avoir changes form according to the subject; the past participle usually does not change with avoir in the sentences you will produce at this level.
- j'ai mangé, tu as mangé, il/elle/on a mangé, nous avons mangé, vous avez mangé, ils/elles ont mangé I ate, you ate, he/she/one ate, we ate, you ate, they ate
Detailed agreement of the past participle with a preceding direct object is not covered in this volume; it belongs to a later stage of study.
16.5 Negation and questions
Questions with the passé composé use the same strategies you already know: Qu'est-ce que tu as fait ? (intonation-neutral, est-ce que), Tu as mangé ? (rising intonation), or As-tu mangé ? (inversion, reserved for careful or formal contexts).
Model Dialogue: Qu'est-ce que tu as fait hier ?
Context: Sophie asks Léa about her first days at the internship.
This dialogue uses only avoir as the auxiliary. Notice that on a pris, j'ai eu, and ont été illustrate three common irregular past participles introduced above.
Listening Practice
Listen once or twice before revealing the script — either from an audio recording if one is available, or from a partner, instructor, or text-to-speech tool reading it aloud. Answer the questions below from listening alone, then reveal the script to check yourself.
- What did Marc do last week with Léa?
- Who did Marc meet, and what did they do all week?
- What happened last night?
- Has Marc started his internship yet? What has he already done?
Reveal script after listening
Speaking Practice
Pratique contrôlée — Controlled practice: verb transformation
Take turns selecting a present-tense sentence that uses one of the scheduled Chapter 16 verbs that forms the passé composé with avoir, such as je mange, il finit, or nous attendons. Have your partner transform it into the passé composé while keeping the same subject.
Tâche communicative — Communicative task: yesterday's activities
With a partner, ask and answer Qu'est-ce que tu as fait hier ? Each of you should describe at least four completed activities, including at least one negative sentence with ne... pas. Select only from the scheduled Chapter 16 verbs or other previously learned verbs that form the passé composé with avoir. Do not use aller, reflexive verbs, or any other verb that forms the passé composé with être; those verbs belong to Chapter 17.
Pratique individuelle — Solo alternative
Record yourself describing yesterday using at least six verbs from this chapter. Explain what you ate, what you prepared, whom you called, what you watched or saw, what you finished, and what you did not finish. Use only scheduled Chapter 16 verbs or other previously learned verbs that form the passé composé with avoir.
Reading Practice
Le premier jour de Léa — Léa's first day
Lundi matin, Léa a commencé son stage. Elle a rencontré son équipe et elle a beaucoup travaillé sur un projet important. À midi, elle a déjeuné avec deux collègues ; ils ont parlé de leurs études et de leurs projets. L'après-midi, Léa a répondu à beaucoup de messages, et elle a fini une première tâche avant cinq heures. Le soir, elle a téléphoné à sa famille pour leur raconter sa journée. Elle a eu un peu peur le matin, mais finalement, elle a passé une très bonne première journée. Elle n'a pas encore visité tous les bureaux, mais elle va le faire cette semaine.
Tâche de lecture — Reading task:
- What did Léa do in the morning?
- Who did Léa have lunch with, and what did they talk about?
- What did Léa do in the afternoon, and did she finish it?
- What has Léa not yet done, according to the last sentence?
Writing Workshop
Complete the following linked writing tasks in order.
Tâche 1 — Sentence transformation: Rewrite five present-tense sentences that use scheduled Chapter 16 verbs forming the passé composé with avoir. Keep the same subject and use the correct form of avoir plus the correct past participle.
Tâche 2 — Connected paragraph: Write a short paragraph (six to eight sentences) describing what you did yesterday or last week, using only scheduled Chapter 16 verbs or other previously learned verbs that form the passé composé with avoir. Do not use aller, reflexive verbs, or any other verb that forms the passé composé with être. Include at least one regular -er participle, one regular -ir or -re participle, two irregular past participles from this chapter, one accurate negative sentence, and one completed-past time expression such as hier or la semaine dernière.
- List your activities. Choose six to eight things you actually did recently.
- Check your verbs. Confirm the correct auxiliary form of avoir and the correct past participle for each verb.
- Draft your paragraph. Organize activities in a logical order, using time expressions to connect them.
- Read your paragraph aloud once. Pronounce each past-participle ending clearly and maintain established subject-pronoun liaison with avoir.
- Revise. Confirm negation surrounds avoir, not the past participle.
Liste de révision — Editing checklist:
- Every past-tense verb used in this Chapter 16 task is a scheduled verb that forms the passé composé with avoir and contains the correct auxiliary form plus a past participle.
- Regular past participles follow the -é / -i / -u pattern correctly.
- Irregular past participles (eu, été, fait, vu, pris) are spelled correctly.
- ne... pas surrounds avoir, not the participle.
- At least one time expression situates the narration in the past.
- Accents, apostrophes, and punctuation are accurate throughout.
- No vocabulary or grammar from outside Chapters 1–16 has been used.
Culture and Communication
In many Francophone workplaces, colleagues commonly ask a new intern or employee informal, friendly questions about their first day or first week, often over a shared coffee or lunch break. Sharing a simple, positive account of one's first experiences is a common and welcome form of small talk in many settings, though the degree of formality can vary by workplace, generation, and region.
The passé composé is used widely across the Francophone world for completed past events in speech and writing. Whether a particular verb takes avoir or être as its auxiliary depends on the verb itself, not on region, and register can also affect which past tense a speaker or writer chooses. Some literary and very formal written registers instead use the passé simple, a different past tense that is receptive-only material well beyond this volume. You do not need to produce it at this level.
Common Mistakes
Error: Writing j'ai mangé as simply mangé, dropping the helping verb.
Correction: The passé composé always needs both parts: j'ai mangé, never mangé alone.
Error: Writing j'ai fini pas mon travail, modeled on simple present-tense negation.
Correction: Negation surrounds avoir, not the participle: je n'ai pas fini mon travail.
Error: Writing j'ai faisé instead of the irregular form.
Correction: faire has the irregular past participle fait: j'ai fait.
Chapter Review
Partie A — Compréhension (Comprehension)
1. Return to the Model Dialogue, and answer these short questions.
- What did Léa do on Monday, according to the dialogue?
- Has Marc started his internship? What is he going to do next Monday?
Partie B — Écriture (Writing)
1. Give the correct past participle: Nous avons ______ (finir) le projet.
2. Rewrite the sentence using pas encore: J'ai déjà mangé. → ______________________________
Partie C — Lecture (Reading)
1. Return to "Le premier jour de Léa," and list two regular past participles and one irregular past participle from the passage.
Partie D — Oral (Speaking)
1. With a partner, ask and answer three questions about what each of you did yesterday, using only scheduled verbs that form the passé composé with avoir. Do not use aller, reflexive verbs, or other verbs that require être in the passé composé.
Practical Performance Task
Chapter 16 Practical Check — Narrating a Completed Past Event
Qu'est-ce que vous avez fait ? — What Did You Do?
Complete the following connected tasks, in order.
- Read the model dialogue and the reading passage. Answer the comprehension questions above before continuing.
- Have a short conversation. Ask and answer what you each did yesterday or last week, using at least six verbs in the passé composé, drawn only from scheduled Chapter 16 verbs or other previously learned verbs that form the passé composé with avoir. Do not use aller, reflexive verbs, or any other être-auxiliary verb.
- Complete the sentence-transformation task. Confirm each auxiliary and participle is correct.
- Write your six-to-eight-sentence paragraph. Apply the editing checklist from the Writing Workshop.
- Read your paragraph aloud once. Pronounce each past-participle ending clearly and maintain established subject-pronoun liaison with avoir.
| Criterion | What is assessed |
|---|---|
| Auxiliary and participle formation | The learner correctly conjugates avoir and forms regular and irregular past participles. |
| Negation | The learner correctly places ne... pas around the auxiliary. |
| Time expressions | The learner situates completed events using appropriate time expressions. |
| Questions and answers | The learner asks and answers questions about past events accurately. |
| Task completeness | The learner's conversation and paragraph combine correctly formed past-tense narration and stay within Chapters 1–16. |
| Oral intelligibility | The learner pronounces the auxiliary and past participles intelligibly, maintains established subject-pronoun liaison, and does not add pronounced consonants to regular participle endings. |
This chapter introduces the passé composé with avoir at an introductory level. Past participle agreement with a preceding direct object, the passé composé with être, and the imperfect are not assessed here; they are developed in Chapters 17 and 18.
Answer Key
Model Dialogue — Comprehension
- Léa started her internship, worked a lot, and spoke French all day with her colleagues.
- Marc has not started yet; he is going to start next Monday.
Writing
- fini
- Je n'ai pas encore mangé.
Chapter Review — Part C (Reading)
Acceptable regular past participles from "Le premier jour de Léa" include commencé, rencontré, travaillé, déjeuné, parlé, répondu, fini, téléphoné, passé, and visité. Any two are acceptable. The acceptable irregular past participle is eu.
Chapter Review — Part D (Speaking)
Answers will vary. A successful exchange contains three comprehensible questions and answers about completed past actions, uses only scheduled avoir-based passé composé verbs, and maintains correct auxiliary and participle formation.
Listening
- Marc visited the neighborhood with Léa and saw the library, pharmacy, and park.
- Marc met two of Léa's colleagues, who worked with her all week.
- Marc and Léa ate together at a small restaurant, and Marc spoke a lot of French.
- Marc has not started yet, but he has already prepared his things.
Reading
- Léa began her internship, met her team, and worked on an important project.
- She had lunch with two colleagues, and they talked about their studies and plans.
- She answered many messages and finished a first task before five o'clock.
- She has not yet visited all the offices, but she is going to do so this week.
Looking Ahead
Ce que vous savez déjà faire — What you can do now
You can talk about completed events using the passé composé with avoir, ask and answer questions about the past, and narrate a short account of your recent activities with correct negation and pronunciation.