| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "Yes, we discovered Saint‑Malo and ate crêpes every day." |
| Oui, on a découvert Saint‑Malo et mangé des crêpes chaque jour. |
| Oui, on a découvert Saint‑Malo et mangé des crêpes chaque jour. |
| This sentence follows the pattern here:. |
| Subject + [passé composé form of main verb] + complement |
| In French, le passé composé is used to describe actions that were finished in the past, something you did, experienced, or completed. |
| It's made up of two parts: |
| the present tense of the auxiliary verb, usually avoir, |
| followed by the past participle of the main verb. |
| Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern. |
| Oui, on a découvert Saint‑Malo et mangé des crêpes chaque jour. |
| "Yes, we discovered Saint‑Malo and ate crêpes every day." |
| Oui, meaning "yes," |
| on, the subject pronoun meaning "we," |
| a, the third-person singular present of avoir, |
| découvert, the past participle of découvrir, meaning "discovered," |
| et, meaning "and," |
| mangé, the past participle of manger, meaning "ate," |
| des crêpes chaque jour, meaning "crêpes every day." |
| So the full sentence means: |
| "Yes, we discovered Saint‑Malo and ate crêpes every day." |
| You'll use this sentence structure when describing highlights or activities from a trip, vacation, or event in the past. |
| Now, let's look at how to conjugate the verbs découvrir and manger in the passé composé. |
| Both verbs use avoir as the auxiliary verb. The form of avoir changes depending on the subject, but the past participle—either découvert or mangé—doesn't change. So once you learn the past participle of a verb, you can use it with any subject, as long as you match the auxiliary verb correctly. |
| So for découvrir, we say: |
| j'ai découvert, which means "I discovered" |
| tu as découvert, "you discovered" |
| il a découvert, "he discovered" |
| elle a découvert, "she discovered" |
| on a découvert, "we discovered" |
| nous avons découvert, "we discovered" |
| vous avez découvert, "you discovered" formally or when speaking to a group |
| ils ont découvert, "they discovered" for a group of males or mixed gender |
| elles ont découvert, "they discovered" for a group of females |
| Now let's try the same pattern with manger. This is a regular -er verb, and its past participle is mangé. So using the same forms of avoir, we say: |
| j'ai mangé, meaning "I ate" |
| tu as mangé, "you ate" |
| il a mangé, "he ate" |
| elle a mangé, "she ate" |
| on a mangé, "we ate" |
| nous avons mangé, "we ate" |
| vous avez mangé, "you ate" formally or in a group |
| ils ont mangé, "they ate" for a group including males |
| elles ont mangé, "they ate" for a group of females |
| In traditional French grammar, when you're talking about a mixed-gender group (for example, three women and one man), the masculine form is used. |
| But today, many people consider this rule sexist or outdated, since it always puts the masculine form first. |
| Some French speakers are now using more inclusive language, like iels, a gender-neutral pronoun, like "they" in English. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| J'ai pris beaucoup de photos pendant le voyage. |
| "I took a lot of photos during the trip." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| J’, the subject pronoun, meaning "I," |
| followed by |
| ai, the present tense of avoir, used as the auxiliary verb in le passé composé, |
| next |
| pris, the past participle of prendre, meaning "took," |
| then |
| beaucoup de photos, meaning "a lot of photos," |
| and finally |
| pendant le voyage, meaning "during the trip." |
| This sentence clearly follows the pattern: |
| Subject + passé composé form of the main verb + complement, |
| and it shows a completed action — taking photos during a past trip. |
| Here's another example |
| Nous avons réservé une table pour deux. |
| "We booked a table for two." |
| Nous avons réservé une table pour deux. |
| "We booked a table for two." |
| Let's try one more, |
| Il a trouvé un bon hôtel en centre-ville. |
| "He found a good hotel in the city center." |
| Il a trouvé un bon hôtel en centre-ville. |
| "He found a good hotel in the city center." |
| Another one. |
| Elles ont regardé un film français hier soir. |
| "They watched a French movie last night." |
| Elles ont regardé un film français hier soir. |
| "They watched a French movie last night." |
| One last example. |
| Tu as fini tes devoirs avant le dîner ? |
| "Did you finish your homework before dinner?" |
| Tu as fini tes devoirs avant le dîner ? |
| "Did you finish your homework before dinner?" |
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