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
1. Find the verb (doing word) you need
2. Change the way the verb is written
3. 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 FrenchEnglish 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…
1. Take off the –er
e.g. jou
2. Add an é
e.g. joué
You have just changed the infinitive into a…
…PAST PARTICIPLE
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
J’ai
You (familiar) have
Tu as
He/she/it has
Il/Elle a
We have
Nous avons
You (formal/plural) have
Vous avez
They have
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:
1. Find the infinitive
jouer
2. Change it into a past participle
joué
3. Add avoir
j’ai joué
Remember, this phrase means I have played,
I played and I did play!!!
The Perfect tense - practice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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
1. J’ai parlé français
2. Tu as mangé un sandwich
3. J’ai visité le château
4. Nous avons détesté le gâteau
5. Il a nagé
6. 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