Le passé composé The Perfect Tense Talking about events in the past

Talking about events in the past In English, we have many ways of talking about events in the past I played I have played I did play In French, we can translate all three of the phrases using the same sentence! French is easy!!

Le passé composé The Perfect Tense in French is made in three simple steps Find the verb (doing word) you need Change the way the verb is written Add a part of the verb avoir (to have) with its subject pronoun (I/You/He/She)

Step 1 – Find the verb you are looking for In order to find the verb we are looking for we must use a… …DICTIONARY e.g. To make the sentence ‘I have played’, we will look up ‘play’ in the dictionary. We will find the word we are looking for next to the letters vi or vt The word we find is… jouer This is called the INFINITIVE

Step 1 - Practice Look up the following words in a French-English dictionary and write down their infinitive forms. Remember you will find the infinitive form next to the letters vi or vt 1. speak 2. eat 3. visit 4. hate 5. swim 6. do

Step 1 – Practice answers speak eat visit hate swim do parler manger visiter détester nager faire You are now ready for step 2

Step 2 – Changing the infinitive Most infinitives end –er (jouer/parler) In order to make the verb suitable for the perfect tense, we must change this ending For –er verbs we must… Take off the –er e.g. jou Add an é e.g. joué You have just changed the infinitive into a… …PAST PARTICIPLE

parler manger visiter détester nager parlé mangé visité détesté nagé Step 2 – Practise Change the infinitive forms from step 1 into past participles parler manger visiter détester nager parlé mangé visité détesté nagé

Step 2 - continued To summarise: infinitives ending –er become -é infinitives ending –ir replace the –ir with –i infinitives ending –re replace the –re with –u However there are some exceptions that need to be learnt! Some common exceptions faire (to do) – fait boire (to drink) – bu avoir (to have) – eu voir (to see) – vu You are now ready for step 3!

Step 3 – add a part of avoir To complete a sentence in the past you must add a part of the verb avoir-to have This should by now be familiar to you!! I have You (familiar) have He/she/it has We have You (formal/plural) have They have J’ai Tu as Il/Elle a Nous avons Vous avez Ils/Elles ont

Step 3 - Practice Complete the sentences below J’ un chat Tu un stylo? Il une soeur Nous un chien Vous n’ pas de devoirs Elles une gomme

Step 3 – Practice answers Complete the sentences below J’ ai un chat Tu as un stylo? Il a une soeur Nous avons un chien Vous n’ avez pas de devoirs Elles ont une gomme

Step 3 - continued We are now ready to make sentences in the perfect tense If we want to translate ‘I have played’ into French: Find the infinitive jouer Change it into a past participle joué Add avoir j’ai joué Remember, this phrase means I have played, I played and I did play!!!

The Perfect tense - practice From what you have learnt, can you translate the following sentences? I spoke French You ( a friend) have eaten a sandwich I visited the castle We hated the cake (le gâteau) He has swum They (women) did

Answers J’ai parlé français Tu as mangé un sandwich J’ai visité le château Nous avons détesté le gâteau Il a nagé Elles ont fait

Perfect Tense - checklist Have you found the correct infinitive? Have you changed the infinitive into a past participle? Have you added the correct part of avoir? Are there 2 verbs in your French translation (i.e. a past participle and a part of avoir)? If you have answered yes then you can make the Perfect Tense – Congratulations