DICTIONARY WORKSHEET 9
VERBS 2 : PERFECT TENSE
The perfect tense tells us that something has happened or happened once in the past, eg. I have played / I
played.
➙
See see pages 304-308 of your Chambers Harrap’s French School Dictionary for more information
on the perfect tense of regular French verbs.
In the scrolls below, write as many regular “-er”, “-ir”, and “-re” verbs as you can think of. You may wish
to refer back to your present tense worksheets.
-er verbs
-ir verbs
-re verbs
To form the perfect tense
with regular verbs belonging to the above three groups, we need:
the correct part of the verb “avoir” in the present tense
(see page 313 of Chambers Harrap’s French School Dictionary)
j’___
tu ___
il / elle / on ____
Past participle
Remove “er” and add é
eg. j’ai joué
nous _______
vous _______
ils / elles _________
Past participle
Remove “ir” and add i
eg. j’ai fini
Past participle
Remove “re” and add u
eg. j’ai vendu
Now write three examples of your own for each verb group.
●
●
●
Chambers Teachers’ Resources
www.chambers.co.uk
© Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2005
DICTIONARY WORKSHEET 9
MIX AND MATCH
Match up the words on the left with the phrases on the right.
Be careful with the words marked *. You will need to decide which pronoun (je, tu, il/elle/on, nous, vous,
ils/elles) they correspond to.
Tu
ont entendu la musique
*Mon frère
ai joué au foot
*Ma mère et moi
a grossi
J’
avez confondu les noms
*Les filles
avons perdu notre chien
Vous
as maigri
Optional: using your dictionary if you need to, translate the above sentences
into English.
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Chambers Teachers’ Resources
www.chambers.co.uk
© Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2005
DICTIONARY WORKSHEET 9
Now try putting the following present tense sentences into the perfect tense. Use pages 304-308 (The Perfect
Tense) in your Chambers Harrap’s French School Dictionary if you need help.
●
Je parle avec ma mère.
●
Nous maigrissons.
●
Les filles aiment faire du shopping ensemble.
●
Pierre attend le train.
●
Ma sœur et moi passons de bonnes vacances.
●
Tu perds à chaque fois.
●
Les garçons grossissent.
●
Vous portez une jupe rouge.
●
Les serveurs finissent à minuit.
Optional: using your dictionary if you need to, translate the above sentences
into English.
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Chambers Teachers’ Resources
www.chambers.co.uk
© Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2005
DICTIONARY WORKSHEET 9
IRREGULAR VERBS
Not more irregular verbs...
Luckily, we can group some of these together.
See pages 312-325 (The Perfect Tense) in your Chambers Harrap’s French School
Dictionary for help with the following exercises.
Write the perfect tense in the “je” form of the following verbs, and give the English meaning.
Infinitive
Perfect tense
English meaning
dire
conduire
cuire
écrire
Do you notice any similarities in the perfect tense of these verbs?
Be careful: this is not the case for all verbs ending in “-ire”.
Infinitive
Perfect tense
English meaning
voir
recevoir
savoir
boire
vouloir
Do you notice any similarities in the perfect tense of these verbs?
Infinitive
Perfect tense
English meaning
prendre
apprendre
comprendre
Do you notice any similarities in the perfect tense of these verbs?
Chambers Teachers’ Resources
www.chambers.co.uk
© Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2005
DICTIONARY WORKSHEET 9
VERBS WITH “ÊTRE”
We have seen how to form the perfect tense using the verb “avoir”. To make things a little more interesting,
certain verbs in French use the verb “être” instead.
If you have forgotten the parts of “être” in the present tense, see page 316 (The Present Tense) of your
Chambers Harrap’s French School Dictionary for a quick reminder.
Don’t panic: most of these verbs have regular past participles.
To help you remember them a little more easily, think of MRS VANDERTRAMP.
Look at the list below.
Infinitive
Past participle
Example using “je”
Monter
Retourner
Sortir
Venir
Arriver
*Naître
Descendre
Entrer
Rester
Tomber
Rentrer
Aller
*Mourir
Partir
monté
retourné
sorti
venu
arrivé
né
descendu
entré
resté
tombé
rentré
allé
mort
parti
je suis monté(e)
je suis retourné(e)
je suis sorti(e)
je suis venu(e)
je suis arrivé(e)
je suis né(e)
je suis descendu(e)
je suis entré(e)
je suis resté(e)
je suis tombé(e)
je suis rentré(e)
je suis allé(e)
je suis mort(e)
je suis parti(e)
English meaning
* = verbs with irregular past participles. See pages 320-325 in your Chambers Harrap’s French School
Dictionary.
You really need to learn these off by heart.
Chambers Teachers’ Resources
www.chambers.co.uk
© Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2005
DICTIONARY WORKSHEET 9
SPELLING CHANGES
If you look carefully at the past participle of the verb “aller” on page 312 of your Chambers Harrap’s
French School Dictionary, you will notice that there are some spelling changes to the past participle.
You will probably already know the rule so try to complete the sentences below.
Rule: When using être in the perfect tense you must change the past participle depending on the person.
●
if the person is feminine we add an _____ to the past participle.
e.g. She went = ________________________
●
if the person is plural we add an _____ to the past participle.
e.g. They went = ____________________
●
if the person is feminine and plural then we add ________ to the past participle.
e.g. They went (feminine) = ___________________
All reflexive verbs (eg. se lever) also take “être” in the perfect tense, and follow the rule above. See page
309 (Perfect) of your Chambers Harrap’s French School Dictionary for an example.
Use pages 312-325 (The Perfect Tense) of your Chambers Harrap’s French School Dictionary to help you
with the following exercise.
Put the following sentences into the perfect tense using the verbs in the brackets.
●
Je ______ ______________ (naître) le 13 octobre. (a boy)
●
Ma sœur _____ ____________(aller) au cinéma.
●
Mon frère _____ _____________(arriver) à 10heures.
●
Tu _____ _____________ (partir) avant la fin du film. (a girl).
●
Mes copines et moi _________ ________________ (rester) à la maison.
●
Vous _______ ________________ (mourir) de fatigue. (a girl)
●
Mes cousins ____________ ____________________ (sortir) en boite.
●
Les filles ___________ _______________ (tomber ) en faisant du ski.
Chambers Teachers’ Resources
www.chambers.co.uk
© Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2005
DICTIONARY WORKSHEET 9
TEST YOURSELF
If you fancy a little a challenge, try doing the following quiz without using your dictionary.
If you need a little help, see pages 312-325 (The Perfect Tense) of your Chambers Harrap’s French School
Dictionary.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Which of the following is incorrect in the perfect tense?

A. j’ai regardé la télé avec ma sœur

B. l’an dernier je visité ma tante en Espagne

C. j’ai joué au foot le week-end dernier

D.
je n’ai pas fini mes devoirs
Which of the following sentences is correct in the perfect tense?

A. je vendu la voiture de mon père

B. mon frère maigri

C. tu as entendu le téléphone

D. elles sont parlé avec le professeur
Which of the following past participles is incorrect?

A. boire → bu

B. faire → fait

C. avoir → eu

D. prendre → prendu
Which of the following past participles would you use to complete this sentence?
Elles sont ……………. à 10 heures du soir

A. arrivée

B. arrivé

C. arrivés

D. arrivées
Chambers Teachers’ Resources
www.chambers.co.uk
© Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2005
DICTIONARY WORKSHEET 9
5)
6)
Which of the following verbs does not take être in the past tense?

A. naitre

B. sortir

C. comprendre

D. arriver
True or false: all French verbs take the verb “avoir” in the perfect tense?

7)
True

False
Which of the following two sentences are incorrect in the perfect tense?

A.
elle est allée en Espagne

B.
ma copine et moi sommes sorti en boîte

C.
elles sont parties en vacances

D.
mes sœurs sont arrivés à dix heures
Bravo ! Tu as réussi.
Chambers Teachers’ Resources
www.chambers.co.uk
© Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2005