Free Passé Composé Worksheets
Make printable passé composé worksheets for the verbs and the agreement rules your class is on. Five exercises take the tense from avoir or être to the full form and the participle's ending, and each sheet can come with an answer key that starts on a new page, so the worksheet can go out without it. Choose 10 to 30 lines, press Shuffle for a new sheet, and print on A4 or US Letter or save as PDF. The worksheets are free and need no account, and teachers may photocopy them for their classes.
Five passé composé exercises
Each worksheet uses one of five exercises.
- Avoir or être? Each line gives a subject and a verb with its meaning, as in elle · partir (to leave), and students write avoir or être. The key adds the full form.
- Write the passé composé. Students write the whole form: nous · finir (to finish) → ____. The key gives nous avons fini, and je suis allé(e) where the person could be a man or a woman.
- Participle endings. Students add the participle's ending, or a dash where there is none: Elles sont parti__ à huit heures.
- Sentences to complete. Students write the auxiliary and the participle: Elles ______ (partir) à huit heures.
- Verb table. Each row gives the infinitive and its meaning, and students fill in the auxiliary, the past participle and the elle form, such as elle est allée.
The first two drill the choice of auxiliary and the form that goes with it. The third drills the ending alone, and the fourth asks for the auxiliary as well. The verb table puts all three parts of a verb on one line.
Choosing the verbs and the agreement rules
Pick the exercise first. For Avoir or être?, Write the passé composé and the verb table, you then pick one or more verb sets:
- Être verbs: 17, the 16 of DR MRS VANDERTRAMP plus passer
- Common avoir verbs: 44 with regular participles, such as parlé, fini and vendu
- Irregular participles: 30 avoir verbs, such as été, eu, fait, pris, mis and écrit
- Reflexive verbs: 29, including six where se is an indirect object, such as se parler and se téléphoner
- Verbs that switch: sortir, monter, descendre, passer, rentrer and retourner, with and without a direct object
For Participle endings and Sentences to complete, you pick kinds of agreement instead: With être (elles sont parties), Reflexive verbs (elle s'est lavée, elle s'est lavé les mains), With avoir (la lettre que j'ai écrite, elles ont écrit une longue lettre) and Verbs that switch (elle est sortie, elle a sorti la poubelle). These are the same sets as in the passé composé quiz. Nothing is preselected, so a sheet holds only what you chose.
Lines, paper and the answer key
The preview sets the rest. Choose 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 lines, and press Shuffle for a new sheet. Pick A4 or US Letter, then print with the answer key or without it. The key starts on a new page, so the worksheet prints cleanly on its own. To keep a copy, choose Save as PDF in the print dialog. Every sheet prints in black and white.
Past participle agreement exercises
Participle endings and Sentences to complete are the agreement exercises. With être the participle agrees with the subject, so Elles sont parti__ à huit heures. takes -es. With avoir it agrees only with a direct object that comes before the verb. A sentence with the object after the verb, such as elles ont écrit une longue lettre, takes no ending, and students write a dash. Mix With être and With avoir on one sheet, and students have to check the auxiliary before they add an ending.
Free passé composé worksheets for classrooms
The worksheets are free and need no account, and teachers may photocopy them for their classes. Print them on A4 or US Letter, or save them as PDF.
To practice on screen, the passé composé quiz asks the same kinds of question one at a time and gives the reason after every answer. For the rules behind the answer key, from DR MRS VANDERTRAMP to agreement with avoir, read passé composé with être. To set the passé composé beside other tenses, use the French verb conjugation worksheets. And when the first sheet comes back marked, Shuffle gives you a second one on the same verbs for the retest.
Frequently asked questions
Are these passé composé worksheets free?
Yes. They need no account, and teachers may photocopy them for their classes.
Is there a passé composé worksheet PDF?
Yes. Make a worksheet, then choose Save as PDF in the print dialog. Every sheet prints in black and white on A4 or US Letter.
Do the worksheets come with answers?
Yes. The answer key starts on a new page, so you can print the worksheet without it. In the Avoir or être? exercise, the key adds the full form, such as elle est partie.
Can I make a worksheet on the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP verbs only?
Yes. Choose the Être verbs set: the 16 verbs of DR MRS VANDERTRAMP plus passer. It works with Avoir or être?, Write the passé composé and the verb table.
How does the key show agreement when the person could be a man or a woman?
With je, tu, nous or vous the person could be either, so the key prints the ending in parentheses: je suis allé(e).
What do students write when the participle takes no ending?
A dash. In Participle endings, students add the ending the participle needs, or a dash where there is none, as with avoir when the object comes after the verb.
Can each student get a different sheet?
Yes. Press Shuffle on the preview for a new sheet, and print one for each student.
How many lines can a worksheet have?
You can choose 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30.
Licenses and credits
Conjugation tables come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). Verbs are ranked by Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords list, built from OpenSubtitles 2018 (CC BY-SA 4.0).