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Year 8 - French

What people did: plural -er verbs in the perfect tense

Past events: the perfect tense, questions

Unit Summary

In this unit, pupils extend their knowledge of the perfect tense as they practise asking intonation, inversion and est-ce que questions in the perfect tense. They learn irregular past participles, practise the two English translations (I did, I have done) for the French perfect tense

Lesson Summary

You will learn to identify and formulate verbs in the perfect tense in both the singular and plural forms to understand what people did.

Key Notes

  • The letter 'c' is naturally soft (sounds like 's') before 'e' or 'i'. It is hard (sounds like k) before 'a', 'o' or 'u'.
  • The 'c' is sometimes softened before 'a', 'o' or 'u' with a cedilla: 'ç'.
  • The verbs 'partir' and 'quitter' both mean 'to leave' in English: 'je quitte la maison', 'je pars dans deux heures'.
  • Use 'quitter' followed by a direct object and 'partir' followed by a preposition or an adverb of time (or on its own).
  • Use the perfect tense to talk about an action that happened in the past: avoir + past participle.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • [c/ç]: pronounced softly as in 'ici' before 'e' or 'i', but as a hard sound before 'a', 'o' and 'u', as in 'content'; [ç] is as in 'français'
  • perfect tense: a verb tense that describes completed actions in the past, e.g., I listened, you played
  • past participle: verb that forms the perfect tense, usually together with a present tense form of 'avoir'

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • The letter 'c' always makes the same sound in French.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

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

The letter 'c' is naturally soft (sounds like 's') before 'e' or 'i'. It is hard (sounds like k) before 'a', 'o' or 'u'. The 'c' is sometimes softened before 'a', 'o' or 'u' with a cedilla: 'ç'.

2. Define this key language word and use it in context. '[c/ç]'

pronounced softly as in 'ici' before 'e' or 'i', but as a hard sound before 'a', 'o' and 'u', as in 'content'; [ç] is as in 'français'. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.

3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.

Mistake: The letter 'c' always makes the same sound in French. Correction: The letter 'c' is naturally soft (sounds like 's') before 'e' or 'i'. It is hard (sounds like k) before 'a', 'o' or 'u'. The 'c' is sometimes softened before 'a', 'o' or 'u' with a cedilla: 'ç'.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 8 French guide library.