Passé Composé with Être

While most French verbs form the passé composé with avoir, a special group uses être (to be) as the auxiliary. These are often memorised with the mnemonic DR MRS VANDERTRAMP. They are mostly verbs of movement or change of state.

The critical difference: when using être, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject — like an adjective.

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The DR MRS VANDERTRAMP Verbs

Letter	Verb	Meaning	Past Participle
D	Devenir	to become	devenu
R	Revenir	to come back	revenu
M	Monter	to go up / to climb	monté
R	Rester	to stay	resté
S	Sortir	to go out	sorti
V	Venir	to come	venu
A	Aller	to go	allé
N	Naître	to be born	né
D	Descendre	to go down	descendu
E	Entrer	to enter	entré
R	Rentrer	to return (home)	rentré
T	Tomber	to fall	tombé
R	Retourner	to return / go back	retourné
A	Arriver	to arrive	arrivé
M	Mourir	to die	mort
P	Partir	to leave / to depart	parti

Additional être verbs: passer (to pass by, when intransitive), décéder (to pass away), and compound forms like repartir, remonter, redescendre.

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Conjugation of Être in the Present Tense

Person	Être
je	suis
tu	es
il / elle / on	est
nous	sommes
vous	êtes
ils / elles	sont

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Agreement of the Past Participle with Être

When the auxiliary is être, the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number:

Subject	Agreement	Example with aller
masculine singular	(no change)	Il est allé
feminine singular	add -e	Elle est allée
masculine plural	add -s	Ils sont allés
feminine plural	add -es	Elles sont allées

With "on": When on means "we" (informal), the past participle often agrees in speech and informal writing: On est allés au cinéma. In formal writing, on takes singular agreement.

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Full Conjugation: Aller (to go)

Person	Passé Composé	Translation
je	je suis allé(e)	I went
tu	tu es allé(e)	you went
il	il est allé	he went
elle	elle est allée	she went
nous	nous sommes allé(e)s	we went
vous	vous êtes allé(e)(s)	you went
ils	ils sont allés	they went (m.)
elles	elles sont allées	they went (f.)

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Full Conjugation: Partir (to leave)