Dr Mrs Vandertramp is the mnemonic every French student meets in the first year of the passé composé, and it is the one thing on this list that most of them can recite without being able to use. The recitation is not the point; the point is that these are the verbs whose past participle is built with être and therefore agrees with the subject, and that six of them change their helper verb when they take an object. This page gives the list with the meanings and past participles, the agreement rule with the endings, the six exceptions, the reflexive verbs that belong to the same family, and a one-page PDF to keep in the folder.
Download the Dr Mrs Vandertramp list as a PDF (the 16 verbs with meaning and past participle, the agreement endings and the six exceptions; A4, one page, free).
The list: what each letter stands for
| Letter | Verb | Meaning | Past participle | Example (passé composé) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | Devenir | to become | devenu | Il est devenu médecin. |
| R | Revenir | to come back | revenu | Elle est revenue à midi. |
| M | Monter | to go up | monté | Nous sommes montés au troisième étage. |
| R | Rester | to stay | resté | Je suis resté(e) à la maison. |
| S | Sortir | to go out | sorti | Ils sont sortis hier soir. |
| V | Venir | to come | venu | Tu es venu(e) en bus ? |
| A | Aller | to go | allé | Elles sont allées au marché. |
| N | Naître | to be born | né | Ma sœur est née en 2015. |
| D | Descendre | to go down | descendu | Vous êtes descendu(e)(s) à la gare. |
| E | Entrer | to enter | entré | Le chat est entré par la fenêtre. |
| R | Rentrer | to go home / back in | rentré | Nous sommes rentrés tard. |
| T | Tomber | to fall | tombé | Il est tombé du vélo. |
| R | Retourner | to return | retourné | Elle est retournée en Inde. |
| A | Arriver | to arrive | arrivé | Le train est arrivé à l'heure. |
| M | Mourir | to die | mort | Mon grand-père est mort en 2020. |
| P | Partir | to leave | parti | Ils sont partis sans moi. |
Most teachers add passer (to pass by, to go past; past participle passé): Je suis passé(e) devant l'école. Some versions of the mnemonic write it as Dr & Mrs P. Vandertramp to fit it in. Two verbs hide inside the list as prefixes: revenir and rentrer and retourner are venir, entrer and tourner with re-; devenir, revenir, parvenir and survenir all follow venir and all take être.
Passé composé with être: the pattern
The passé composé has two parts: the helper verb in the present tense, then the past participle. For the Vandertramp verbs the helper is être:
| Subject | être (present) | aller → allé + agreement | In English |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | suis | allé / allée | I went |
| tu | es | allé / allée | you went |
| il / elle / on | est | allé / allée | he / she / one went |
| nous | sommes | allés / allées | we went |
| vous | êtes | allé / allée / allés / allées | you went |
| ils / elles | sont | allés / allées | they went |
Vous takes all four endings depending on who is being addressed: one man (allé), one woman (allée), several people (allés), several women (allées).
The agreement rule
Because the helper is être, the past participle behaves like an adjective and agrees with the subject:
- masculine singular: no ending. Il est parti.
- feminine singular: -e. Elle est partie.
- masculine plural (or mixed group): -s. Ils sont partis.
- feminine plural: -es. Elles sont parties.
Two participles are irregular in the base form and then agree normally: né (née, nés, nées) and mort (morte, morts, mortes). Venu, devenu, revenu add the endings to the -u: venue, venus, venues.
In speech, most of these endings are silent (parti and partie sound the same), which is exactly why they are lost in written work. The habit to build: every time the child writes est or sont or sommes, look left for the subject, then right at the participle, and add the ending before moving on.
The six that switch to avoir
Monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, retourner and passer take être when there is no object, and avoir when they have a direct object (something being carried, taken, passed). With avoir there is no agreement with the subject.
| With être (no object) | With avoir (direct object) |
|---|---|
| Je suis sorti(e). I went out. | J'ai sorti la poubelle. I took the bin out. |
| Elle est montée. She went up. | Elle a monté les valises. She carried the suitcases up. |
| Nous sommes descendus. We went down. | Nous avons descendu l'escalier. We went down the stairs. |
| Ils sont rentrés. They went home. | Ils ont rentré la voiture. They put the car in. |
| Elle est retournée en Inde. She went back to India. | Elle a retourné la crêpe. She flipped the pancake. |
| Je suis passé(e) devant l'école. I went past the school. | J'ai passé un examen. I took an exam. |
Passer un examen is the one that appears in almost every exam paper, because passer an exam does not mean to pass it (that is réussir).
The other family that takes être: reflexive verbs
Every reflexive (pronominal) verb also uses être in the passé composé: se lever, se laver, se coucher, s'habiller, se réveiller, s'appeler, se promener, s'amuser. Je me suis levé(e) à sept heures. Elles se sont couchées tard. The agreement follows the reflexive pronoun when it is a direct object (elle s'est lavée) and does not when it is indirect (elle s'est lavé les mains: the hands are the direct object, and they come after the verb). That last distinction is A-level and beyond; at GCSE and IGCSE, agree with the subject and move on.
How to learn it in four days
- Day 1: say the mnemonic aloud while writing the sixteen infinitives, three times. Then cover the list and write it from the letters.
- Day 2: the past participles, in pairs of opposites, because the opposites are all in the list: aller/venir (allé/venu), entrer/sortir, monter/descendre, arriver/partir, naître/mourir, rester/retourner. Six pairs plus devenir, revenir, rentrer, tomber and passer.
- Day 3: write one sentence per verb with a feminine or plural subject, so the agreement is practised on every line, not just remembered as a rule.
- Day 4: the six exceptions, as three pairs of sentences each (être version, avoir version). Then a past paper question on the passé composé, timed.
Children who learn the list as a chant and never do day 3 are the ones who write elle est allé in the exam. The agreement is a habit, not a fact.
How we teach French grammar
Our French tutors take GCSE, IGCSE, IB and CBSE students through the tenses in the order the exam boards test them, one tutor, one student, with the child writing every example while the tutor watches. The passé composé with être is one lesson plus a week of five-minute retrieval. The first 30-minute class is free: send the topic and the last test on WhatsApp or the contact page. The object pronouns that go with this tense are in DOP vs IOP, and the agreement rule with avoir is in the preceding direct object rule.
Questions parents ask
1What does Dr Mrs Vandertramp stand for?
2Why do these verbs take être instead of avoir?
3Does the past participle agree with the subject?
4Are there Vandertramp verbs that sometimes take avoir?
See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →
Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.