Etre and Avoir in Perfect Past Tense

With Perfect Past Tense is there a way to know which verb of Etre or Avoir is used with the second verb other than memorizing every verb? Thank you, MFW

Hi there, the best thing is to memorize them, but there are a few hints that are useful to know: - all reflexive verbs go with être - verbs that describe some kind of motion usually go with être, for example aller, venire etc. - when a verb is used together with a direct object it uses avoir I personally think that the more you are exposed to spoken French (Interactive Audio Course, TV, Radio etc) the more you will get a feel for what to use. Even if you don't pay attention to it in particular you will pick it up and get a feel for it. It will feel right to use avoir or être and you won't even know why. I hope that helps.

Yes that helps a great deal. Thank you Marie-Claire.