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Year 9 - French

Senegal: perfect tense, inversion questions, negation 'ne... pas', 'ne … jamais'

People and places: present and perfect tense

Unit Summary

Pupils revisit present and perfect tenses, two verb structures after aller, aimer and modal verbs and inversion questions in single and two-verb structures. The verb croire is introduced in singular persons, and feminine and plural noun formation and possessive adjectives are revised and extended.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to form questions and sentences (in the affirmative and negative forms) about the country of Senegal in the present and perfect tenses.

Key Notes

  • Senegal is a French-speaking country in West Africa. An independent nation since 1960, Senegal was a French colony.
  • To talk about an action that happened in the past, we can use 'le passé composé' (the perfect tense), e.g. 'j'ai mangé'.
  • When using the perfect tense, the adverb generally goes after the verb 'avoir' and before the past participle.
  • To form an inversion question in the perfect tense, swap the subject and the verb ('avoir'), e.g. 'As-tu commencé ?'.
  • In negative sentences, 'ne … pas' and 'ne … jamais' go around the verb.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • perfect tense: a verb tense that describes completed actions in the past, e.g. 'I said', 'she played'
  • adverb: word that describes a verb or an adjective
  • inversion: when the subject pronoun and the verb switch place to form a question
  • negative: a statement which denies or expresses negative meaning, e.g. 'il ne pleut pas'; in French this includes two elements, e.g. 'ne … pas', around the main verb

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • There is just one equivalent tense in English to the perfect tense in French.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

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

Senegal is a French-speaking country in West Africa. An independent nation since 1960, Senegal was a French colony. To talk about an action that happened in the past, we can use 'le passé composé' (the perfect tense), e.g. 'j'ai mangé'.

2. Define this key language word and use it in context. 'perfect tense'

a verb tense that describes completed actions in the past, e.g. 'I said', 'she played'. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.

3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.

Mistake: There is just one equivalent tense in English to the perfect tense in French. Correction: There are in fact two equivalent tenses in English to the perfect tense in French: the present perfect and the simple past. 'J'ai voyagé au Sénégal' can mean both 'I travelled to France' and 'I have travelled to France'.

More Lessons In This Unit

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