PART 2: PAST TENSE VERBS
Lesson - Section 2: Composite Past Tense with avoir + IR + RE verbs, and the Vocabulary of Time
Hi and welcome back to French Past Tense! The meat of the composite past tense was introduced in the last lesson - that is to say, the nuts and bolts. Thus, this lesson has much less to introduce to you. I simply want to say how to conjugate the IR and RE verb classes in past tense, using the auxiliary verb avoir. However, there are several ways to conjugate the -IR and the -RE verbs, more so than the -ER verbs.
For an -RE verb?
1. If it ends in -IRE, remove the -RE ending and replace with -it.
For example, di
re becames j'ai d
it.
2. If the word ends in
mettre (to put), or
prendre (to take), or those two verbs themselves, remove the -ETTRE or -ENDRE and replace with -is.
For example,
permettre becomes
j'ai permis.
For example,
surprendre because
j'ai surpris.
3. If the verb ends in vowel + -IRE, -IRE only, or -DRE, replace the vowel + -IRE or -IRE with -u.
All other cases are irregular and must be individually memorized.
For an -IR verb?
1. If the verb ends in vowel + consonant + IR, replace the -IR with -u.
For example,
tenir becomes
j'ai tenu.
2. If the verb ends in vowel + consonant + consonant + IR, replace the -IR with -i.
For example,
servir becomes
j'ai servi.
3. If the verb ends in -RIR, replace the -RIR with -ert (except
courir!, which becomes
couru.).
For example,
offrir becomes
j'ai offert.
4. And there are 11 very important irregular verbs you must memorize:
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>
Infinitif</TD><TD>
Participe Passé
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
apercevoir -</TD><TD>
aperçu
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
décevoir -</TD><TD>
déçu
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
recevoir -</TD><TD>
reçu
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
pouvoir -</TD><TD>
pu
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
vouloir -</TD><TD>
voulu
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
voir -</TD><TD>
vu
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
savoir -</TD><TD>
su
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
devoir -</TD><TD>
dû
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
falloir -</TD><TD>
fallu
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
pleuvoir -</TD><TD>
plu (plaire is conjugated as plu also !!; context will help you distinguish)
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
valoir -</TD><TD>
valu</TD></TR></TABLE>
All other cases are irregular and must be individually memorized.
And how do you form the past tenses of avoir and être themselves? These both take an irregular participe passé, but take avoir as the auxiliary verb. What do they look like?
J'ai
été = I have been (caution; été used as a noun means the summer season - context will help distinguish)
J'ai
eu = I have had
These are the two most important examples of irregular conjugations in the French Passé Composé; learn these two first before all other irregular past participles please!!
And that is it for Passé Composé with avoir. Passé Composé with être is coming on the next lesson!
Let's go to time.
Time
The months of the year are:
The days of the week?
<TABLE CELLSPACING="2"><TR><TD>
</TD><TD>Monday</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD><TD>Tuesday</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD><TD>Wednesday</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD><TD>Thursday</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD><TD>Friday</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD><TD>Saturday</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD><TD>Sunday</TD></TR></TABLE>
The ways to tell time are very similar to the English way of telling time. We also have these expressions like "quarter t'ill", half past, etc. There is one small difference - in English you would write a colon between the 2 numbers, like 12:30pm. In France, you use the 24 hour clock more frequently than the 12 hour clock and you use an H or h in place of the colon. The h signifies heures in French, or o'clock.
Quelle heure est-il?
11h23:
Il est onze heures vingt-trois.
15h45:
Il est quatre heures moins le quart (mais quinze heures quarante-cinq).
20h30:
Il est vingt heures trente (mais huit heures et demie).
12h00:
Il est midi.
0h00:
Il est minuit.
It is habit to only say the quarter till and half-past when you are speaking in the 12 hour clock
.
Common adverbs in French describing time
hier = yesterday
avant-hier = the day before yesterday
dernière = last
il y a ____ jours = ____ days ago
venir de = used to indicate that something happened very recently. English equivalent? He just ______. NB = despite the fact that this is in the
present tense in French, it is used to describe something in the
past tense in English. Example sentence:
Je viens de trouver mon cahier.
I just found my notebook.
And that is it for today's lesson! Please send me in a PM your answer's to the following questions
.
1. Please tell this time in French: 23h22.
2. Please tell this time in French: 4h45.
3. Please tell this time in French: 13h17.
4. Please tell this time in French: 6h55.
5. Please tell this time in French: 14h45.
6. Please tell this time in French: 7h30.
7. What are the months in French?
8. What are the days of the week in French?
9. Conjugate completely the verb courir, in the Passé Composé, using avoir as the auxiliary verb.
10.Conjugate completely the verb courir, in the Passé Composé, using avoir as the auxiliary verb.
11.Conjugate completely the verb voir, in the Passé Composé, using avoir as the auxiliary verb.
12.Conjugate completely the verb falloir, in the Passé Composé, using avoir as the auxiliary verb.
13.Conjugate completely the verb remettre, in the Passé Composé, using avoir as the auxiliary verb.
14.Conjugate completely the verb écrire, in the Passé Composé, using avoir as the auxiliary verb.
15.Conjugate completely the verb faire, in the Passé Composé, using avoir as the auxiliary verb.
16.Conjugate completely the verb écrire, in the Passé Composé, using avoir as the auxiliary verb.