Passé composé with être or avoir or both?

Question

Hi can you help me with the conjugation of "passer"with être and avoir.  There is an example of both but I'm not sure how to know when to use them.. 
Ma tante est passée........, 
nous avons passé une semaine......
When it's se passer it's not a problem as it's always conjugated with être.
Many thanks

Accepted Answer

Salut Celine, Check out: https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/passer-can-be-used-with-avoir-or-etre-in-le-passe-compose-and-changes-meaning Also, you can follow the link in that lesson "Verbes aux deux auxiliaires" to see information and lessons for verbs that can use both avoir and être in Le Passé Composé. Technically, it's a matter of whether the verbs are used in their transitive or intransitive forms, but the easiest pattern to spot is whether or not a preposition follows (en, à, sur, dans etc.) Hope that helps!

Answer

Bonjour Celine,
I too have difficulty with the use of être or avoir with certain verbs to give a different meaning.
Most verbs use either avoir or être as the auxiliary verb in le Passé Composé (or other compound tense), but passer uses both, depending on what it means in the sentence*.
être + passé 
= pass by 
= go past 
= stop by 
= pop by 
avoir + passé 
= spend 
= take  
= pass  (to someone)
I am not exactly sure how and when to differentiate the two in the respective function.  
The only thing that seems to have helped are the translations given in the lesson, and to me even that is somewhat ambiguous with certain verbs.
Wish that i had more to offer you besides just saying that there are others who experience the same issue.l
Bonne chance !
Ron

Answer

Merci Ron, je suis contente que je ne suis pas seule:) C