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Year 8 - French

Brussels: perfect tense -er verbs 1st and 2nd persons singular

Past experiences: -ER verbs in the present and past

Unit Summary

The perfect tense with 'avoir' for -er verbs, faire and dire is extended for all singular forms. Intonation and 'est-ce que' questions and negation in the present and perfect tenses are practised, and 'il y a' is contrasted with 'il y avait'. Open eu,oeu, open o and closed o,ô are taught.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to use the perfect tense with regular -er verbs in the 'je' and 'tu' forms to talk about what you and you did.

Key Notes

  • The French SSC [r] sounds very different to the English. It is a raspy sound pronounced in the back of your throat.
  • We use the perfect tense in French to say what I did. It uses 'j'ai' from the verb 'avoir' with a past participle.
  • To form the past participle of regular -er verbs, you replace the -er with -é.
  • To form the perfect tense with 'tu' you use 'tu as' followed by the same past participle.
  • To form yes, no questions in the perfect tense, you simply raise your voice at the end of the sentence.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • [r]: Sound-symbol correspondence like the [r] in 'rue'
  • 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

  • I pronounce [r] the same in French as in English.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

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

The French SSC [r] sounds very different to the English. It is a raspy sound pronounced in the back of your throat. We use the perfect tense in French to say what I did. It uses 'j'ai' from the verb 'avoir' with a past participle.

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

Sound-symbol correspondence like the [r] in 'rue'. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.

3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.

Mistake: I pronounce [r] the same in French as in English. Correction: The SSC [r] is very different in French. It is a raspy sound from the back of your throat like the [r] in 'rue'. It does require quite a lot of practice to master this sound.

More Lessons In This Unit

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