The passé composéin the text
1 USAGE
The passé composé= perfect and is used to refer to completed events in the past, but it usually
implies some kind of link between the past event and the present time, e.g. either that the event
has taken place fairly recently, or that the consequences of it are still felt in the present. It may
correspond either to the English ‘I have placed’ or ‘I have been placing’, but in this extract, as so
very often, it functions as a definite past and is best translated by a simple past in English: ‘I
placed’. It is used in distinction to the imperfecttense (see Chapter 3), which presents actions in
the past as ongoing, continuous, incomplete, e.g. Ils ramenaient(line 8) in the text above. Des
tramways sont arrivés(line 8) is a completed event; but ils ramenaient(line 8) relates what they
were in the process of doing. They were bringing back...
The text is taken from a novel, L’Étranger, by Albert Camus. Normally, in a novel, one would
expect to find the past historic, rather than the passé composé, used as the main narrative tense
for completed events in the past. Camus is using the passé composéinstead for particular stylistic
effect (see Chapter 5).2 FORMATION
a The passé composéis a compound tense. It is made up of twoparts: the appropriate form (in
terms of person and number) of the present tense of avoiror êtreand the past participle of the
verb being used, e.g. j’ai retourné(line 1), je suis rentré(lines 2–3).2 The passé composé
Albert Camus, L’ÉtrangerJ’ai retournéma chaise etje l’ai placéecomme celle du marchand de tabac parce
quej’ai trouvéque c’était plus commode.J’ai fumédeux cigarettes,je suis
rentrépour prendre un morceau de chocolat etje suis revenule manger à la
fenêtre. Peu après, le ciels’est assombrietj’ai cruque nous allions avoir un
5 orage d’été.Il s’est découvertpeu à peu cependant.
Mais le passage des nuées avait laissé sur la rue comme une promesse de pluie qui
l’a rendueplus sombre.Je suis restélongtemps à regarder le ciel. A cinq heures,
des tramwayssont arrivésdans le bruit. Ils ramenaient du stade de banlieue des
grappes de spectateurs perchés sur les marchepieds et les rambardes.Text