Week 2 day 3 Flashcards
perfect tense, or “passé composé” — compound past
The French perfect tense is equivalent to all three forms of the English past tense: “I have spoken,” “I did speak,” and “I spoke.”
The French perfect tense is equivalent to all three forms of the English past tense: “I have spoken,” “I did speak,” and “I spoke.”
There are two auxiliaries that are normally used:”avoir,” which means “to have,” and “être,” which means “to be.” An auxiliary is a verb that is used to set the mood or voice of other verbs. It is most commonly used to denote the tense of other verbs, i.e. past, present or future.
A past participle refers to the form of the verb used with an auxiliary to form compound verb tenses and the passive voice. In this case, it is in relation to something that has happened in the past, therefore the verb will need to end in a way that suggests that something has happened in the past.
As you know, “avoir” means “to have”; we are now going to learn how to form a past participle in relation to this auxiliary. The rules are very simple:
If the verb ends with “er,” you will replace the “er” with “é”; some irregular verbs also follow this rule, such as “aller.”
If the verb ends with “ir,” you will replace “ir” with “i”; you will also do this for some irregular verbs.
Example: finir à fini, sortir à sorti
The past tense is used when you talk about an action that took place and was completed in the past.
To form the past tense, you use this formula: present tense of the verb avoir or être + the past participle.
The past participle is obtained through using the indicative and changing the endings (-er verbs to -é, -ir verbs to -i, and -re verbs to -u)
Most of the verbs use avoir, but two groups (namely the reflexive verbs and some verbs that mostly refer to or involves bodily movement or some kind of physical activity) use être.
To form the past participle when using être, the past participle has to agree with the subject of the verb and changes its form for feminine and plural.
Review forming french perfect tense (passé composé)
The French perfect tense, or past compose, is formed using two parts: the first is an auxiliary verb such as having which is used in the present tense, and the second part is the past participle of the main verb.
Avoir conjugation
Present Tense
The present tense of avoir used in forming the passé composé are the following:
(j’) ai, (tu) as, (il/elle) a, (nous) avons, (vous) avez, and (ils/elles) ont.
Past participle
Past Participle
This is how to form a past participle:
1. If the verb ends with –er, drop the –er and replace with –é.
- If the verb ends with “ir”, replace -ir with -i.
- If the verb is irregular, you need to memorize the past participle form - it’s a lesson for another day.
What time is it?
Quelle heure est-il?- “kale ur a (short sound) till”
It is 6 o’clock
il est 6 heures.- “eel a cease ur”
It is 10 past five
il est cinq heures dix.- “eel a sunk ur deese”
it is ten to five
il est cinq heures moins dix- “eel a sunk ur mawa deese”
It’s a quarter past five
il est cinq heures et quart.- “eel a (short) sunk ur a car”
It’s a half past five.
il est cinq heures et demie- “eel a (short) sunk ur a duh me”
It’s a quarter to six
il est six heures moins le quart- “eel a cease ur mawa ler car.”
It is midnight
il est minuit- “eel a me new wee”
it is miday
il est midi
at what time?
À quelle heure- “ Ah kale ur?
