DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP: The 16 Être Verbs for Learners

Introduction

Most verbs take avoir in the passé composé — that’s already covered in Passé Composé Basics. But 16 specific verbs break that rule: they take être, and the list has to be memorized, because forgetting even one means the wrong auxiliary. TEF/TCF speaking tasks are full of “I went, I came, I came back” — so this list needs to be automatic.

DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP — this fictional name has one être verb hiding behind each letter. 16 letters, 16 verbs.

1 Dr — 2 verbs

2 Mrs — 3 verbs

3 Vandertramp — 11 verbs

Note: three verbs start with R — retourner (in Dr) and rentrer, revenir (in Vandertramp). They aren’t interchangeable: retourner = to go back to a place you’d been before, rentrer = to go back home or inside, revenir = to come back to where the speaker is.

4 Remembering the agreement

Every être participle agrees with the subject — that’s why every participle above is written with (e):

With avoir, the participle never agrees with the subject (elle a mangé). The full picture, including mixed groups and on, is in section 5 of the passé composé lesson.

5 Adding “re-” keeps être

Attach the prefix “re-” to a Vandertramp verb and it still takes être — that’s exactly how revenir (venir + re-) works, and it isn’t the only one:

6 When an être verb takes avoir

Six of these verbs can also take a direct object: monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, retourner and passer. With an object they mean something else (to take up, to take out, to spend…), they switch to avoir, and the participle stops agreeing with the subject:

Passer, the “seventeenth” verb. It is not in the mnemonic, but it follows exactly this rule: être when it means passing by or through (je suis passé devant la banque), avoir with an object, especially a length of time (j’ai passé deux ans à Winnipeg, j’ai passé l’examen).

The test: after the participle, is there a thing the action is done to (the suitcases, the dog, two years)? Then avoir.

Examples

• Nous sommes nés au Punjab, mais nous sommes devenus citoyens canadiens. (We were born in Punjab, but we became Canadian citizens.)
• Elle est montée dans l’autobus, puis elle est descendue trois arrêts plus loin. (She got on the bus, then got off three stops later.)
• Ils sont partis tôt et ils sont arrivés en retard quand même. (They left early and still arrived late.)
• Je suis resté(e) chez moi hier, mais aujourd’hui je suis sorti(e). (I stayed home yesterday, but today I went out.)
• Ma grand-mère est morte l’année dernière ; toute la famille est revenue pour les funérailles. (My grandmother died last year; the whole family came back for the funeral.)

Common Mistakes

Practice

A. Être or avoir? Write the helper verb

B. Make the participle agree

Your Turn: Your Arrival in Canada

A TEF/TCF-style speaking situation: Racontez votre arrivée au Canada. Speak for about a minute. Use at least five être verbs, make every participle agree, and add one verb that takes avoir.

Model answer: Je suis parti de Delhi le douze janvier. Je suis arrivé à Toronto le lendemain, et mon cousin est venu me chercher à l’aéroport. Nous sommes rentrés chez lui et je suis resté une semaine. Ma femme est arrivée un mois plus tard, avec nos deux enfants. Elle est née à Amritsar, mais elle est déjà devenue une vraie Canadienne. J’ai monté ses valises au deuxième étage.

What’s next

Most of these verbs (aller, venir, devenir, revenir, naître, mourir, partir, sortir included) now have full conjugation tables at /tools/conjugator/. The complete agreement rules are in Passé Composé Basics, reflexive-verb être agreement is in Pronominal Verbs, and choosing between imparfait and passé composé is in Imparfait vs Passé Composé.