Passé Composé and Inversion?

[Kuni Ohama]

I dont get how to invert a sentence with passé  composé.  Well I understand passé  composé I think but I need help still.

 

How do I rewrite this sentence with passé  composé and inversion?

"A qui rend-elle visite?"

with passé  composé:

"A qui a t-elle rendu visite"

How do I add inversion to that?  Is it like this?:

"A t-elle  a visité quoi?"

 

What about this sentence?

"Paul et Francois assistent-ils au match?"

with passé  composé:

"Paul et Francois assistèrent au match?"

with inversion?:

"A été l'assistèrent match par Paul et François?"

 

I'd really appreciate some help. XP  Thank you!

[Benoît]

I'm French but I have to confess that I don't remember much of my grammatical lessons (a long time ago...) and I don't understand what you call "inversion".
By inversion, do you mean verb /subject inversion that occurs in interrogative form?

But, based on your examples (all interrogative form, so in my opinion all with “inversion”), I can give you some common usage (perhaps it will help):
"A qui rend-elle visite ?" OK (présent)
"A qui a-t-elle rendu visite ?" OK (passé composé)
"Qui a-t-elle visité ?" (Passé composé)
Remark: You can say "visiter quelqu'un" in French but I'm not sure it's widely used or even if it's a proper grammatical form. In fact “on visite un endroit” and “on rend visite à quelqu’un”.
So the last sentence can become:
Qu’a-t-elle visité ? or Quel endroit a-t-elle visité ? (Passé composé in both case)

"Paul et Francois assistent-ils au match?" OK (présent)
"Paul et Francois assistèrent-ils au match?" (Passé simple)
"Paul et François ont-ils assisté au match ?" (Passé composé)

PS : Bonne année à toutes et tous !

[Neil Coffey]

Firstly, be careful between the passé composé or "compound" past, where you need two words, and the passé simple, or "simple" past, which consists of only one word. The passé simple-- e.g. assistèrent-- is not part of everyday usage. Instead, use the passé composé.

 

So, the passé composé for assister would be Paul et François ont assisté au match.

 

Then, to make the inverted form, you need to do the following:

- insert the pronoun that corresponds to the subject, if it isn't there already-- in this case ils ("they")-- (Paul et François ils ont assisté au match)

- swap the order of the form of the pronoun and the following verb form  (in this case ont) and but a hpyhen between them: Paul et François ont-ils assisté...)

 

In the third person (il/elle/ils/elles forms), if the verb doesn't end in a -t or -d, then you need to insert -t-, so for example: il donne gives the inverted form donne-t-il. In the passé composé, this will happen with a: Il a travaillé gives A-t-il travaillé?

 

Occasionally, you don't actually need the "extra" pronoun: if it's a so-called "partial" question-- i.e. question that cannot be answered by "yes" or "no", and the "question word" is short, then it's often possible to just say, e.g. Où travaille ton père?, rather than the longer form Où ton père travaille-t-il? (but both forms are correct).

 

Note that inverted forms like this are quite formal and generally avoided in everyday speech. Don't get tooo bogged down in this for now--  there are really more useful things you can learn!

 

See also these grammar sections:

• Question forms in French
• The perfect tense (passé composé)

 

[Kuni Ohama]

Wow thanks!  That makes it quite a bit more clear.  I still dont fully grasp it though.  What about the other sentence?

 

"A qui rend-elle visite ?"

How would that be written with passé  composé and inversion?

Would it be like this?:

"A qui fait-elle-rend visité?"

[Benoît]

Thanks Neil, now I know (remember) what "inverted form" is (almost equivalent to interrogative form)

[Neil Coffey]

You're very welcome :-)

 

Just for completeness, I should perhaps point out that inversion dosn't necessarily imply interrogation. For example, in le match auquel ont assisté Paul et François, this would also be classed as a type of inversion (sometimes called "stylistic inversion"). Notice the grammar is slightly different here: the subject pronoun isn't (and can't be) inserted.