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A mystery: perfect and imperfect tenses together
I can use the perfect and imperfect tenses together to describe simultaneous events in the context of a mystery.
Lesson 4 of 5
New
New
- Year 9
A mystery: perfect and imperfect tenses together
I can use the perfect and imperfect tenses together to describe simultaneous events in the context of a mystery.
Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- The singular forms of ‘voir’ in the present tense are ‘vois’ (‘je’, ‘tu’) and ‘voit’ (‘il’, ‘elle’).
- The verb 'voir' is used in many expressions in French like 'voir grand', 'rien à voir avec' and 'voir la vie en rose'.
- Use the imperfect tense to express the past continuous 'was -ing'.
- Use the perfect + imperfect tenses together with a conjunction to describe what happened when you were doing something.
Keywords
Imperfect tense - tense used to describe how things were or used to be in the past, or to say what was happening
Common misconception
The imperfect tense only describes what used to happen.
The imperfect tense describes what was happening and what used to happen and can be used with the perfect tense and a conjunction like 'quand' or 'pendant que'.
This lesson could lead to a group work task where students play the different characters and come up with their own questions and answers for the mystery.
Teacher tip
Equipment
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2026), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which word or phrase means 'because of'?
Which word or phrase means 'because of'?
beaucoup de
est-ce que
parce que
pourquoi
Q2.Match the French and English.
Match the French and English.
Q3.Match the French and English.
Match the French and English.
Q4.Order the words to say: 'he watched the programme until the end'.
Order the words to say: 'he watched the programme until the end'.
Q5.Write in English: 'un concours annuel'.
Write in English: 'un concours annuel'.
Q6.Write in French: 'an African artist (f)'.
Write in French: 'an African artist (f)'.
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.The imperfect tense is used to say ...
The imperfect tense is used to say ...
what happened once
what will happen
what would happen
Q2.Match the French and English.
Match the French and English.
Q3.Order the words to say: 'I had dinner while you were cleaning'.
Order the words to say: 'I had dinner while you were cleaning'.
Q4.Write in French: 'I see the staircase'.
Write in French: 'I see the staircase'.
