When talking about things that happened in the past in French, you will most likely use the compound tense known as the passé composé.

It’s called a compound tense because it’s made of two parts, an auxiliary and a past participle.

In the example below, ai (have) is the auxiliary and pensé (thought) is the past participle. Together, they make up the passé composé.

J'ai pensé à vous hier.

I thought of you yesterday.

Caption 5, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé de l’indicatif

 Play Caption

In this lesson we will focus on conjugating verbs ending in -er (also known as first-group verbs) in the infinitive form or dictionary form, since they are the most common verbs.

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

To make up the passé composé, you conjugate the auxiliaries avoir (to have) or être (to be) in the present tense and add the past participle of the main verb. Most verbs take the auxiliary avoir and only a few take the auxiliary être, which we'll explore in a future lesson.

Les auxiliaires "être" et "avoir"

The auxiliaries "être" and "avoir"

sont utilisés pour conjuguer les formes composées.

are used to conjugate compound forms.

Caption 9, Manon et Clémentine - Conjugaison du verbe être

 Play Caption

Par exemple, le verbe "manger" avec "avoir". J'ai mangé une pomme.

For example, the verb "manger" [to eat] with "avoir." I ate an apple.

Caption 10, Manon et Clémentine - Conjugaison du verbe être

 Play Caption

The passé composé is the equivalent of the simple past (I did) and the present perfect (I have done).   

So, for example, j’ai pensé can be translated as "I thought" or "I have thought" depending on the context. In any case, the auxiliary avoir cannot be dropped in French, as we do with "have" in English.

In her lesson on the passé composé, Patricia explains how to form a past participle:

Et le participe passé, c'est très simple.

And the past participle is very simple.

Il suffit de remplacer "er" par "é".

You just have to replace "er" with "é".

Captions 30-31, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé de l’indicatif

 Play Caption

The -er ending that Patricia mentions is the ending of an infinitive verb, which will become a past participle ending in -é (don't forget the accent mark!). For example, take out the -er ending of préparer (to prepare) and replace it with -é to make up the past participle préparé (prepared). Note that préparer and préparé sound the same, as the -r ending of the infinitive form is always silent.

Et donc j'ai préparé une leçon très utile pour vous.

And so I prepared a very useful lesson for you.

Caption 7, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé de l’indicatif

 Play Caption

Here's a final example of the passé composé:

Ils ont cuisiné hier, tous ensemble.

They cooked yesterday, all together.

Caption 51, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé de l’indicatif

 Play Caption

Remember that you will need to be familiar with the present tense of avoir in order to form the passé composé.

For a complete conjugation of cuisiner (to cook) in the passé composé, check out Patricia’s lesson.

So far, we’ve focused on conjugating first-group, -er verbs, but there are many more to explore! We'll see you for another round of verbs in a future lesson!

The adjective malin appears in two recent videos on Yabla, and it has two very different meanings in each. In the last segment of Le Jour où tout a basculé - Notre appartement est hanté, we finally get to the bottom of the spooky occurrences in Harold and Claire's apartment, thanks to Harold's clever investigations:

Mais cette fois-ci, le couple s'est attaqué à un adversaire

But this time, the couple tackled an opponent

plus malin que les autres.

who was more clever than the others.

Caption 34, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Notre appartement est hanté

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

And in Lionel's visit to Toul Cathedral, we learn about the cathedral's gargoyles and what they represent: 

Ici là-bas, on a une représentation,

Here, over there, we have a representation

du diable, du malin, d'un démon.

of the devil, of the evil one, of a demon.

Captions 27-28, Lionel - La Cathédrale de Toul

 Play Caption

While malin is most often used as an adjective meaning "smart," it can also have darker undertones, especially when used as a noun. In the second example, the tour guide uses it as a synonym for the devil, but un malin can also just refer to a trickster or a wily person. And don't forget that "smart" can have a negative connotation in English too:

Ça sera peut-être d'avoir l'air malin dans l'interview, hein.

It might be looking like a smart aleck in the interview, you know?

Caption 21, Micro-Trottoirs - Un rêve récurrent?

 Play Caption

Bien sûr. Et nous aussi on voudrait du sucre, gros malin!

Of course. And us too, we would like some sugar, wise guy!

Caption 14, Il était une fois... la vie - 14. La bouche et les dents

 Play Caption

Ne fais pas le malin avec moi. 
Don't get smart with me. 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Note that the feminine form of malin isn't maline, but maligne:

Et même, très maligne, ma petite Clémentine!

And even very clever, my little Clémentine!

Caption 51, Manon et Clémentine - Conjugaison du verbe être

 Play Caption

You'll also see this -in/-igne ending in the word bénin/bénigne (benign, minor), which is actually an antonym of malin/maligne: une tumeur maligne is a malignant tumor, and une tumeur bénigne is a benign tumor.  

Manu le Malin is a famous French hardcore DJ. You can check out some interviews with him on Yabla. 

Thanks for reading! Tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.