passé composé

American  

[pah-sey kawn-poh-zey] / pɑ seɪ kɔ̃ poʊˈzeɪ /

noun

French.

1. a grammatical construction of French consisting of the present tense of an auxiliary, either avoir or être, followed by a past participle and corresponding in function to both the English present perfect and the English simple past tenses.

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Etymology

Origin of passé composé

Literally, “compound past”

Example Sentences

My French I class back in Florida did not prepare me for Madame O’Malley, who skipped the “how was your summer” pleasantries and dove directly into something called the passe compose, which is apparently a verb tense.

From Literature

But those who know the passé composé from the plus-que-parfait still have plenty of value at the Tour.

From New York Times