The Passé Composé with the Auxiliary “avoir” Part 3: Verbs of the Third Group Lesson 3: Verbs ending in “cevoir”, “voir”, “eindre”, and “uire”

The passé composé is a tense used to express an action or a state that happened in the past. We call it “composé” because it’s composed of two parts: An auxiliary, either the auxiliary “être” to be or the auxiliary “avoir” to have and a past participle of a verb. In this part we will only tackle the passé composé of the verbs of the third group that require the auxiliary “avoir” .

The verbs of the third group are called irregular because they don’t follow a specific rule when they are conjugated. Because there are so many irregular verbs, we will classify them here according to the formation of their past participle. In this lesson, we will study the verbs of the third group ending in “evoir” , “voir”, and “uire”.

Verbs of the third group ending in “cevoir” that form their past participle by dropping “evoir” and replacing it with “u”:

apercevoir, concevoir, décevoir, percevoir, recevoir.

For example: To find the past participle of the verb “recevoir”, you remove the “cevoir” at the end of the verb and replace it with “u” and you obtain “ reçu”

Note: When you look for the past participle of the verbs mentioned above, do not forget la cédille, a symbol written under the letter c which tells us that the “c” is pronounced like an /s/ and not like a /k/.

Hier, j’ai reçu une lettre très importante.
Yesterday, I received an important letter.

Quand je lui ai demandé de démissionner, il a perçu cela comme une menace.
When I asked him to resign, he saw that as a threat.

Voici l’ingénieur qui a conçu le produit dont tout le monde parle.
Here is the man who designed the product that everybody is talking about.

Verbs of the third group ending in “voir” which form their past participle by dropping “oir” and replacing it by “u”:

entrevoir, prévoir, revoir, voir.

For example: To find the past participle of the verb “prévoir”, you remove the “oir” at the end of the sentence and replace it with “u” and you obtain “prévu”.

Est-ce que tu as prévu quelque chose ce week-end?
Did you plan anything this week-end?

Après leur rupture, elle a revu son ex- petit ami deux ou trois fois seulement.
After their break up, she saw her ex- boyfriend again twice or three times only.

Exceptions:

The past participle of pleuvoir, pouvoir, and devoir form their past participle by dropping the “euvoir” at the end of the verb and replacing it with “u”.

For example: the past participle of pleuvoir is “plu”.

Il a beaucoup plu cette semaine.
It rained a lot this week.

Comme la route était bloquée, nous avons dû faire demi-tour.
As the road was blocked, we had to turn around.

Note: Don’t forget the circumflex accent “^” on the ‘u” in “dû”.

Verbs of the third group ending in “eindre” that form their past participle by dropping the “dre” and replacing it with “t” :

atteindre, déteindre, éteindre, feindre, peindre, teindre.

For example: To find the past participle of the verb “atteindre”, you remove the “dre” at the end of the verb and replacing it with “t” and you obtain “atteint”.

Le Mississipi a atteint son plus haut niveau en 70ans.
The Mississipi river reached its highest level in 70 years.

Ils ont peint leur maison en rose.
They painted their house pink.

Verbs of the third group ending in “uire” which form their past participle by dropping the “re” and replacing it with “t”:

conduire, construire, cuire, détruire, instruire, introduire, produire, traduire.

For example: To find the past participle of the verb “conduire”, you remove the “re” at the end of the verb and you replace it with “t” and you obtain “conduit”.

Mes parents ont conduit toute la nuit sous une pluie diluvienne.
My parents drove all night under a pouring rain.

A la fin de la réunion, ils ont introduit leur nouveau produit.
At the end of the meeting, they introduced their new product.