Which verbs take être as auxiliary
Most French verb take avoir as an auxilliary verb to form more complex compound tenses or passive sentences. But a few verbs take être as auxiliary. These verbs generally indicate motion or change of state. Now, you might think ‘God another list of exceptions to learn?!’
But fear not, we have a handy acronym to remember these verbs: DR MRS VANDERTRAMP. This contains all the verbs that always use être as auxiliary. Below is a list of all of them with links to their complete conjugation tables.
- Devenir (to become)
- Revenir (to come back)
- Monter (to go up)
- Rester (to stay)
- Sortir (to go out)
- Venir (to come)
- Aller (to go)
- Naître (to be born)
- Descendre (to go down)
- Entrer (to enter)
- Rentrer (to re-enter)
- Tomber (to fall)
- Retourner (to return)
- Arriver (to arrive)
- Mourir (to die)
- Partir (to leave)
Note: Passer uses être when it means to pass and uses avoir as an auxiliary when it means to spend time.
Être as auxiliary with reflexive verbs
Reflexive verbs like se laver (to wash oneself) take être standard as auxiliary. If you don’t know what reflexive verbs are, these are verbs in which you do something to yourself. Other examples are: se raser (to shave oneself) and se maquiller (to put on makeup). Read more about reflexive verbs in this article.
Every reflexive verb gets être as an auxiliary. So you would see something like
- Je me suis maquillée avant la fête
- I (have) put on makeup before the party
This sentence is in the passé composé and suis acts as the auxiliary verb. ‘Have’ is not in the translation here (because in English you don’t use it when specifying a time) but you could imagine it here very well to emphasize that an auxiliary is used in French. Notice further that we are talking here about a completed action in the past, which fits with the passé composé. Another example:
- Je me suis rasé hier soir
- I shaved last night
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