When do you use 'avoir' and 'être' when using 'Le passé composé'?

To form 'le passé composé' (the perfect tense), you need to use an auxiliary verb which is either avoir or être plus the past participle. Avoir is usually used but when the verb is a verb of motion or a reflexive verb, then être is used instead. There is an acronym to help you remember which verbs take être, it's Mrs Vandertramp: M Monter (To climb) R Retourner (To return) S Sortir (To go out) V Venir (To come) - this includes all verbs which contain 'venir' such as 'revenir', 'devenir' A Aller (To go) N Naître (To be born) D Descendre ( To go down) E Entrer (To enter) R Rentrer (To return) T Tomber (To fall) R Rester (To stay) A Arriver (T arrive) M Mourir (To die) P Partir (To leave) Remember that if you use the verb 'être', then the past participle must agree with the subject, so for a feminine subject you would add on 'e', for masculine plural add 's' and for feminine plural add 'es' E.g. Je suis allé(e) - I went E.g. Il est tombé- He fell E.g. Elle est restée- She stayed E.g Ils sont arrivés- They arrived E.g. Elles sont parties- They (feminine) left E.g. Marc et moi sommes entrés- Marc and I entered (Marc and I is the same us 'we' so we take the 'nous' form of the verb.) If the verb is not in the list above and is not a reflexive verb, then the verb 'avoir' is used. The past participles for verbs taking 'avoir' do NOT agree with the subject! E.g. J'ai choisi- I chose E.g. Nous avons mangé- We ate E.g. Elle ont visité- They visited E.g. Tu as decidé- You decided