"passé composé" meaning in French

See passé composé in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /pa.se kɔ̃.po.ze/, /pɑ.se kɔ̃.po.ze/ Audio: LL-Q150 (fra)-Lepticed7-passé composé.wav Forms: passés composés [plural]
Etymology: Literally, “compound past”, because, unlike the imparfait and passé simple, which use endings and/or root flexion, it uses an auxiliary verb and the past participle. Etymology templates: {{m-g|compound past}} “compound past”, {{lit|compound past}} Literally, “compound past” Head templates: {{fr-noun|m}} passé composé m (plural passés composés)
  1. a past tense in French grammar, to express a completed ('perfect') action. In English, it can either be called the perfect tense or referred to by its French name. The name 'passé composé' reflects the fact that it is a compound tense, unlike the passé simple. Wikipedia link: passé composé Tags: masculine Categories (topical): Tenses Related terms: plus-que-parfait, passé simple
    Sense id: en-passé_composé-fr-noun-xSH6I4FY Categories (other): French entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "compound past"
      },
      "expansion": "“compound past”",
      "name": "m-g"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "compound past"
      },
      "expansion": "Literally, “compound past”",
      "name": "lit"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Literally, “compound past”, because, unlike the imparfait and passé simple, which use endings and/or root flexion, it uses an auxiliary verb and the past participle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "passés composés",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "m"
      },
      "expansion": "passé composé m (plural passés composés)",
      "name": "fr-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "French",
  "lang_code": "fr",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "French entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "fr",
          "name": "Tenses",
          "orig": "fr:Tenses",
          "parents": [
            "Grammar",
            "Linguistics",
            "Language",
            "Social sciences",
            "Communication",
            "Sciences",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "a past tense in French grammar, to express a completed ('perfect') action. In English, it can either be called the perfect tense or referred to by its French name. The name 'passé composé' reflects the fact that it is a compound tense, unlike the passé simple."
      ],
      "id": "en-passé_composé-fr-noun-xSH6I4FY",
      "links": [
        [
          "past tense",
          "past tense"
        ],
        [
          "French",
          "French"
        ],
        [
          "perfect tense",
          "perfect tense"
        ],
        [
          "compound tense",
          "compound tense"
        ],
        [
          "passé simple",
          "passé simple"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "plus-que-parfait"
        },
        {
          "word": "passé simple"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "passé composé"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/pa.se kɔ̃.po.ze/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/pɑ.se kɔ̃.po.ze/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q150 (fra)-Lepticed7-passé composé.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d2/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lepticed7-pass%C3%A9_compos%C3%A9.wav/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lepticed7-pass%C3%A9_compos%C3%A9.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d2/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lepticed7-pass%C3%A9_compos%C3%A9.wav/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lepticed7-pass%C3%A9_compos%C3%A9.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "passé composé"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "compound past"
      },
      "expansion": "“compound past”",
      "name": "m-g"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "compound past"
      },
      "expansion": "Literally, “compound past”",
      "name": "lit"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Literally, “compound past”, because, unlike the imparfait and passé simple, which use endings and/or root flexion, it uses an auxiliary verb and the past participle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "passés composés",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "m"
      },
      "expansion": "passé composé m (plural passés composés)",
      "name": "fr-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "French",
  "lang_code": "fr",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "plus-que-parfait"
    },
    {
      "word": "passé simple"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "French countable nouns",
        "French entries with incorrect language header",
        "French lemmas",
        "French masculine nouns",
        "French multiword terms",
        "French nouns",
        "French terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "fr:Tenses"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "a past tense in French grammar, to express a completed ('perfect') action. In English, it can either be called the perfect tense or referred to by its French name. The name 'passé composé' reflects the fact that it is a compound tense, unlike the passé simple."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "past tense",
          "past tense"
        ],
        [
          "French",
          "French"
        ],
        [
          "perfect tense",
          "perfect tense"
        ],
        [
          "compound tense",
          "compound tense"
        ],
        [
          "passé simple",
          "passé simple"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "passé composé"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/pa.se kɔ̃.po.ze/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/pɑ.se kɔ̃.po.ze/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q150 (fra)-Lepticed7-passé composé.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d2/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lepticed7-pass%C3%A9_compos%C3%A9.wav/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lepticed7-pass%C3%A9_compos%C3%A9.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d2/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lepticed7-pass%C3%A9_compos%C3%A9.wav/LL-Q150_%28fra%29-Lepticed7-pass%C3%A9_compos%C3%A9.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "passé composé"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable French dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-29 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (4eaa824 and ea19a0a). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.