Mr Kidman's Classroom
Revise the key ideas
Travel and places
- Countries and transport — Je vais en France, au Canada and aux États-Unis show different country prepositions. Je vais à Paris uses à with a city. En train and en avion describe transport; à vélo means by bicycle. Learn country names with their article and appropriate preposition rather than applying en everywhere.
- Holiday activities — Visiter un musée, se promener, prendre des photos and aller à la plage are visiting a museum, going for a walk, taking photos and going to the beach. Rester chez moi means staying at home. A holiday account can be local or fictional; foreign travel is not a requirement for meaningful French.
- Time markers — Hier means yesterday; le week-end dernier means last weekend; l’année dernière means last year. D’abord, ensuite and enfin organise events. A time marker helps a reader, but the verb must also show the intended time; hier je vais is not the standard past account.
Completed events
- Passé composé with avoir — A common completed past uses the present of avoir as a helping verb (an auxiliary), plus a past participle, a verb form used to build this past tense: j’ai visité, tu as visité, il a visité, nous avons visité, vous avez visité, ils ont visité. Regular er verbs normally form the participle in é. J’ai visité can mean I visited or I have visited according to context.
- Other participles — Finir gives fini and vendre gives vendu. Useful irregulars include fait from faire, eu from avoir, été from être, pris from prendre and vu from voir. J’ai pris des photos means I took photos. Do not form the past by adding an English ed ending.
- Être as auxiliary — Some verbs use être: je suis allé/allée, elle est arrivée, nous sommes partis/parties. In these examples, the past participle agrees with the subject. Choose an example that fits the person or group described. Not every verb describing movement uses être: j’ai marché uses avoir.
- Reflexive past — Je me suis levé/levée and elle s’est réveillée use être. In these simple examples the participle agrees with the subject; more complex reflexive agreement depends on the object’s role. You do not need to work out those exceptions from this point: first practise the complete examples here and use a checked reference or teacher guidance for a new construction. Begin with secure full expressions rather than claiming every reflexive participle always agrees in every construction.
- Negative past — Je n’ai pas aimé le film places ne … pas around the auxiliary ai. Elle n’est pas allée au musée places it around est. The participle remains after pas. Compare je n’aime pas with je n’ai pas aimé so that the listener can distinguish present dislike from a past reaction.
Ne and pas surround the conjugated auxiliary in the completed past; the participle follows pas. Full-size diagram
Background and habits
- Forming the imperfect — For most verbs, take the present nous form and remove ons to find the stem: nous visitons → visit-. Add ais for je, ais for tu, ait for il/elle/on, ions for nous, iez for vous, and aient for ils/elles. Thus je visitais can mean I used to visit, and nous visitions we used to visit. Être uses ét-: j’étais, nous étions. The imperfect can describe past habits, states or an action in progress.
- Choosing past forms — Il faisait beau et j’étais content gives background weather and a state. J’ai visité le musée gives a completed event. Quand j’étais petit, je jouais au parc describes a past habit. English was does not determine one French tense automatically; decide what role the action or state has in the account.
- An interrupted action — Je lisais quand mon ami a téléphoné means I was reading when my friend phoned. Lisais gives the ongoing background; a téléphoné gives the event. This is one useful contrast, not a claim that every long action needs the imperfect or every short action the passé composé.
In the example, je lisais sets an ongoing background and a téléphoné introduces the completed event. Tense choice depends on narrative role, not a rule about action length. Full-size diagram
Accounts and evaluation
- A past narrative — Original text: Samedi dernier, je suis allé au parc avec mon frère. Il faisait froid, mais nous avons joué au football. Après, j’ai bu un chocolat chaud. C’était agréable. Identify a destination, companion, weather, activities and evaluation; distinguish factual detail from the speaker’s judgement.
Past account · Original synthetic practice speech, not an authentic recording or exam extract. Identify the companion, weather, past actions, evaluation and future plan. Transcribe a short past sentence and compare its auxiliary and participle.
Read the practice transcript
Samedi dernier, je suis allé au parc avec ma sœur. Il faisait froid, mais nous avons joué au football. Ensuite, j’ai bu un chocolat chaud. C’était agréable. Demain, je vais rester à la maison.
- Adding a reaction — C’était passionnant means it was exciting; j’ai trouvé le voyage fatigant means I found the journey tiring. Malheureusement, le musée était fermé adds a drawback. Support a reaction with a detail so that an account does more than list activities.
- Translation into French — For I visited a museum yesterday, choose j’ai visité un musée hier. Identify the subject, time, auxiliary, participle and noun phrase. Then check é on visité and the gender of musée. Translate a whole meaning accurately rather than replacing words in English order.
- Past-speaking task — Use a few pictures or prompts to recount an event, then answer an unprepared question about it. Mix background with completed actions where meaningful. A teacher checks comprehensibility, tense choices and pronunciation; a correct quiz about an auxiliary cannot establish independent past-time speaking.
