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Year 8 - French

Today and yesterday: perfect tense with 'faire' and 'dire'

Everyday life: -ER verbs in the present and past

Unit Summary

In this unit, knowledge of -er verbs in the present tense is embedded, and intonation and inversion questions with and without question words are revisited. Pupils contrast present and perfect tenses with 'avoir' for -er verbs, faire and dire. The SSCs um,un and -gn- are taught.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to use the perfect tense with 'avoir' to talk about what you did yesterday and compare it to what you am doing today.

Key Notes

  • [gn] sounds like 'ligne'.
  • Use the perfect tense to say what you did in the past.
  • To say what I did, use 'j'ai' and a past participle.
  • The past participles of 'dire' and 'faire' are 'dit' and 'fait'.
  • The past participles 'dit' and 'fait' sound identical to the present tense verb forms.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • [gn]: pronounced as in 'ligne'
  • perfect tense: a verb tense that describes completed actions in the past, e.g. 'I said', 'she did'
  • past participle: verb that forms the perfect tense, usually together with a present tense form of 'avoir'

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • There is no difference in French between the present and perfect tense forms 'I do' and 'I did', 'I say' and 'I said', because they sound the same.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain what you can now say or understand in this lesson.

[gn] sounds like 'ligne'. Use the perfect tense to say what you did in the past.

2. Define this key language word and use it in context. '[gn]'

pronounced as in 'ligne'. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.

3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.

Mistake: There is no difference in French between the present and perfect tense forms 'I do' and 'I did', 'I say' and 'I said', because they sound the same. Correction: The spellings of the past participles 'fait' and 'dit' are different to the first person (I) present tense but sound the same because of silent final consonants. Another difference is using 'j'ai' before past participles to say 'I did'.

More Lessons In This Unit

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