VERBS 2 : PERFECT TENSE

Transcription

1 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 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 nous vous ils / elles Past participle Remove er and add é eg. j ai joué 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.

2 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.

3 Now try putting the following present tense sentences into the perfect tense. Use pages (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.

4 IRREGULAR VERBS Not more irregular verbs... Luckily, we can group some of these together. See pages (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?

5 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 English meaning Monter monté je suis monté(e) Retourner retourné je suis retourné(e) Sortir sorti je suis sorti(e) Venir venu je suis venu(e) Arriver arrivé je suis arrivé(e) *Naître né je suis né(e) Descendre descendu je suis descendu(e) Entrer entré je suis entré(e) Rester resté je suis resté(e) Tomber tombé je suis tombé(e) Rentrer rentré je suis rentré(e) Aller allé je suis allé(e) *Mourir mort je suis mort(e) Partir parti je suis parti(e) * = verbs with irregular past participles. See pages in your Chambers Harrap s French School Dictionary. You really need to learn these off by heart.

6 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 (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.

7 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 (The Perfect Tense) of your Chambers Harrap s French School Dictionary. 1) 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 2) 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 3) Which of the following past participles is incorrect? A. boire bu B. faire fait C. avoir eu D. prendre prendu 4) 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

8 5) Which of the following verbs does not take être in the past tense? A. naitre B. sortir C. comprendre D. arriver 6) True or false: all French verbs take the verb avoir in the perfect tense? True False 7) 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.