Conjugate mourir, naître, décéder, devenir, rester (+ être) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past)

In: Level A2, Verbs Tenses & Conjugation, Passé composé, Verbes avec être comme auxiliaire
Questions: 15

In Le Passé Composé, most verbs use avoir as the auxiliary verb but a fixed number of verbs use être instead.  

They are almost all verbs to do with movement (See Conjugate coming and going verbs (+ être) in Le Passé Composé (conversational past)), but also those to do with states of being (birth, death, becoming, staying).

Have a look at the following examples:

Je suis né en avril.
I was born in April.

Marie, tu es restée avec Lucas hier.
Marie, you stayed with Lucas yesterday.

Il est mort l'année dernière.
He died last year.

Nous sommes devenus bons amis.
We became good friends.

Vous êtes restées dans le train.
You stayed on the train.

Elles sont devenues danseuses.
They became dancers.

 

The pattern for these verbs in Le Passé Composé:

être (le Présent)  +   past participle of the verb

 
ATTENTION:
Because they're using être as auxiliary verb, their past participles have to agree with the subject of the verb.

 
 

List of the "being and state" verbs and their past participles

Mourir (to die) –> mort
Naître (to be born) –> né
Décéder (to decease) –> décédé
Devenir (to become) –> devenu
Rester (to stay / remain) –> resté

 

There is also a "house diagram" known as the maison d'être showing these verbs in one easy-to-remember picture on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_maison_etre.jpg   
 
 
 

Learn more about these related French grammar topics

Passé composé

Verbes avec être comme auxiliaire

Examples and resources

Vous êtes restés mes petits garçons.
You remained my little boys. 

Nous sommes devenus bons amis.
We became good friends.

Elles sont devenues danseuses.
They became dancers.

Je suis né en avril.
I was born in April.

Vous êtes restées dans le train.
You stayed on the train.

Il est mort l'année dernière.
He died last year.

Ils sont décédés le mois dernier.
They died last month.

Marie, tu es restée avec Lucas hier.
Marie, you stayed with Lucas yesterday.

Je suis resté à la maison.
I stayed at home.

Q&A

Melody

Kwiziq community member

16 September 2016

4 replies

Participle form for "vous", and for "elles"

Vous can mean one person (polite ? ) form, or more than one person. So "vous (Gareth) êtes resté à la maison"; vous (Laura) êtes restée à la maison" and "vous (Laura and Aurélie) êtes restées à la maison" ? I'm making my best guesses here. Vous is not included in the lesson. And elles is not included in the lesson either. "Elles êtes restées à la maison"? Whether my versions are correct or not, lesson might be improved by adding examples with vous and elles. Thanks as ever.

Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

16 September 2016

16/09/16

Bonjour Melody ! First of all, Bravo ! All your guesses for "vous" are perfectly correct :) As for "elles", almost -> "Elles SONT restées à la maison." And I agree with you that these cases need to be added to the lesson, which will all be done shortly. Merci beaucoup et à bientôt !

Melody

Kwiziq community member

16 September 2016

16/09/16

Aurélie Thanks for the speedy response. Sorry about the "brain glitch" on "Elles sont"! One last question- for "vous (Laura and Aurélie) êtes restées à la maison", is there a liason between the "s" at the end of "restées" and "à" ? (and other similar cases)? Thanks again. I find Q&A section SO helpful!

Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

19 September 2016

19/09/16

Bonjour Melody ! In this case, most people wouldn't do the liaison between "restées" and "à", it sounds weird to me personally :) I would say that usually before "à la maison" I wouldn't do the liaison. Following this question, I also decided to rework the lesson on agreement, and add a section about the "vous" agreement there ;) -> Agreeing past participle with subject's gender and number with (+ être) verbs in Le Passé Composé Merci et à bientôt !

Melody

Kwiziq community member

19 September 2016

19/09/16

Thanks so much for taking the time to rework the lesson. I read it via the link you gave and it's very helpful. Melody

Jennifer

Kwiziq community member

10 August 2016

2 replies

what about using mort or né as an adjective?

If you are saying the king is dead or the baby is born, can you use mort or né as an adjective, viz le roi est mort, Le bébé est né?

Laura

Kwiziq language super star

10 August 2016

10/08/16

Bonjour Jennifer, Yes, past participles of all verbs can be used as adjectives.

Jennifer

Kwiziq community member

10 August 2016

10/08/16

Bonjour Laura, Thank you

Chris

Kwiziq community member

5 June 2016

2 replies

Décéder & Devenir

I was caught out as I hadn't learnt that Décéder & Devenir are etre verbs in passe compose: they are not in the "traditional" group (and not in the house photo on Wikipedia). Are there any other rogue verbs that use etre?

Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

7 June 2016

7/06/16

Bonjour Chris !

All the (+être) verbs are covered in our system in two lessons: this one (for 'rogue' verbs) and the "coming and going verbs" lesson (see https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/conjugate-coming-and-going-verbs-etre-in-le-passe-compose-conversational-past).

Also remember that all reflexive verbs also take être in Le Passé Composé: https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/conjugate-reflexive-verbs-in-the-passe-compose-conversational-past

À bientôt !

Jenni

Kwiziq community member

24 February 2017

24/02/17

Yes, I noticed that too. In other French courses (& those 'mountain verb' diagrams) nobody tells you about décéder & devenir! What else might the cunning French be keeping from us?

John

Kwiziq community member

29 March 2016

3 replies

Naître in the present and past tenses

One of the test questions for this lesson is: Zoë est née avant Lèo. Zoë is born before Léo. Is this past tense translation correct because the speaker is necessarily speaking about a past event? Could we use the present tense here?

Laura

Kwiziq language super star

30 March 2016

30/03/16

Bonjour, It's a mistake, it should say "was born," or else, as you suggest, naître should be in the present tense.

Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

30 March 2016

30/03/16

Bonjour John, Yes, it's definitely a translation error. If you used the present of "naître" in French, it would mean they're being born right now, or weirder, that they're born regularly ! You can use the present form in a general context, for example: "Tous les ans, des quintuplés naissent dans le monde." (Every year, quintuplets are born in the world.) The error has been fixed! Merci et à bientôt !

Jennifer

Kwiziq community member

5 September 2017

5/09/17

What about in a dramatic real time senario, eg the baby is born as the clock strikes midnight. Would the french be nait or est né?

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