Xenops wrote: I confess that I have been a Pimsleur fan for years, but lately I have dropped the practice of using them. Towards the end of level 1 of French and into the first half of level 2, I was very frustrated with the lack of explanation for the past tense: "I have gone", "I have not seen her since two years ago", etc, because I never knew when to use "je suis" or "j'ai" with the past participle...
First, although it pains me to digress even further, I would not want Xenops to abandon either his/her study of the French language or his/her use of Pimsleur French over a matter such as "which auxiliary verb" should apply.
Second, while I would note that the "problem" of "which auxiliary verb" exists in several European languages, the list of the French "être" verbs is mercifully rather short: Être verbs - French Auxiliary Verbs (https://www.thoughtco.com/etre-verbs-french-auxiliary-verbs-1368843). You will notice that, for the most part, these are verbs of motion. This, of course, is not a reliable indicator, which is part of the fun of learning a language. However, the "trick" in mastering these verbs is simply to drill-drill-drill them. Did I say DRILL them?
Third, while I am a huge fan of the Pimsleur method, I find that their reliance on the student's ability to "deduce" the grammatical structure of a language from the examples has practical limits, even in the case of very approachable languages such as French. For this reason, with a view to resolving any problems of structure, I always recommend that the student keep a very basic grammar at hand; nothing fancy here, or you'll get lost in the forest, just something very, very basic.
Fourth, despite what-I-perceive as a minor handicap of the Pimsleur method (the need to "deduce" the structure of the target language), I would most definitely NOT deem this as a reason for rejecting this very fine approach to the independent learning of a foreign language. As I noted above, the solution is quite simple: consult a very basic grammar.
Fifth, I'm sorry, what we were all talking about?
EDITED: renumbering of the comments; pronouns