Is there an easy formula for creating compound tenses?

For your French GCSE you will be expected to be able to recognise and create two compound tenses: the perfect tense and the pluperfect tense. The perfect tense is used to describe a single completed action in the past whereas the pluperfect tense usually describes actions further in to the past. The difference can be seen in the following example in English: I arrived (perfect tense) I had arrived (pluperfect tense). The easiest way to approach these tenses is by separating the three parts: the pronoun, the auxiliary verb and the past participle. The auxiliary verb will either be avoir or être. Most verbs will take avoir but the following verbs, which can be remembered by the acronym MRS VAN DER TRAMP will take être: Monter, Retourner, Sortir, Venir, Arriver, Naître, Descendre, Entrer, Rester, Tomber, Rentrer, Aller, Mourir, Partir. The auxiliary needs to be conjugated to match the pronoun and it is this conjugation which will determine the tense of the phrase. To make the perfect tense, conjugate the auxiliary in the present, and to make the pluperfect tense, conjugate the auxiliary in the imperfect. It might be useful to draw yourself a chart so that you can learn the conjugations of avoir and être off by heart in both the present and imperfect tense. (I can send you such a chart if requested). It is useful to remember that the past participle of the verb you want to conjugate stays the same, as it is the auxiliary which determines the tense. For regular verbs, the past participles are as follows: er verbs change to é, ir verbs change to i, and re verbs change to u. There are some irregular verbs for which you will need to look up and remember the past participle. Let’s use the verb manger and the pronoun Je as an example: Manger takes the verb avoir as its auxiliary. J’ai mangé - I ate J’avait mangé - I had eaten It is necessary to bear in mind that for VAN DAR TRAMP VERBS, the past participle must agree with the pronoun. Let us use aller with elle, ils and elles as an example: Elle est allée – she went Elle était allée – she had gone (Here we need to add an e to match the feminine pronoun) Ils sont allés – they went Ils étaient allés – they had gone (Here we need to add an s to match the plural pronoun) Elles sont allées – they went (f) Elles étaient allées – they had gone (f) (Here we need to add e and s to match the feminine plural pronoun) Make yourself a check list when you are forming these tense. 1. Determine whether the auxiliary is avoir or être 2. Conjugate the auxiliary to match the pronoun in the appropriate tense 3. Add the past participle and make it agree with the pronoun if you have used être.