New
New
Year 9

The French colonial empire: perfect tense with verbs like 'venir' and 'entendre'

Learning outcomes

I can use verbs like 'entendre', 'venir' and 'mettre' in the perfect tense, including with inversion, to talk about French colonial history.

I can confidently pronounce nasal and non-nasal [on] and [om].

New
New
Year 9

The French colonial empire: perfect tense with verbs like 'venir' and 'entendre'

Learning outcomes

I can use verbs like 'entendre', 'venir' and 'mettre' in the perfect tense, including with inversion, to talk about French colonial history.

I can confidently pronounce nasal and non-nasal [on] and [om].

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. [on] is pronounced as in 'non' and [om] is pronounced as in 'nom'. They become non-nasal before a vowel e.g. 'colonial'.
  2. To form the past participles of verbs like 'entendre' and 'venir', remove -re/ir from the infinitive, add the ending -u.
  3. With verbs like 'mettre', remove -ettre from the infinitive and add -is.
  4. Turn perfect tense sentences into questions by inverting the subject and auxiliary verb and adding a hyphen.
  5. Add -t- between il/elle and the verb to create a liaison.

Keywords

  • Past participle - verb form that forms the perfect tense, together with the auxiliary verb

  • Inversion question - when the subject pronoun and the verb switch place to form a question

Common misconception

When forming inversion questions in the perfect tense, you just have to swap the subject and the verb.

Swapping the position of the subject and the verb is an important step in forming inversion questions but remember to add a hyphen and -t- in the third person singular e.g. 'A-t-elle vendu sa maison ?'


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A wider discussion on French-speaking countries from across the globe would be stimulating and enriching if time permits.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), 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

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6 Questions

Q1.
What are DOM-TOM?

French cities
countries which have a border with France
Correct answer: French overseas departments and territories
French islands

Q2.
Which word has a non-nasal sound?

prison
continuer
nom
Correct answer: colonial
monde

Q3.
Which word or phrases means 'because of'?

parce que
Correct answer: à cause de
car
mais
pourquoi

Q4.
Match the continents.

Correct Answer:North America,Amérique du nord

Amérique du nord

Correct Answer:South America,Amérique du sud

Amérique du sud

Correct Answer:Asia,Asie

Asie

Correct Answer:Africa,Afrique

Afrique

Correct Answer:Europe,Europe

Europe

Correct Answer:Australia,Australie

Australie

Q5.
Match the numbers.

Correct Answer:sixty,soixante

soixante

Correct Answer:seventy,soixante-dix

soixante-dix

Correct Answer:eighty,quatre-vingt

quatre-vingt

Correct Answer:ninety,quatre-vingt-dix

quatre-vingt-dix

Correct Answer:hundred,cent

cent

Correct Answer:thousand,mille

mille

Q6.
Write in English: 'dix-septième siècle'.

Correct Answer: seventeenth century, 17th century

Assessment exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
How would you ask your friends if they have been waiting long?

Ont-ils attendu longtemps?
As-tu attendu longtemps?
Correct answer: Avez-vous attendu longtemps?
A-t-il attendu longtemps?

Q2.
'Elles sont en train.' Choose the correct past participle.

venu
venue
Correct answer: venues
venus

Q3.
Order the words to form a question.

1 - a-
2 - t-
3 - elle
4 - promis
5 - de
6 - faire
7 - ses devoirs

Q4.
'Tu es venu avec elle.' Turn this sentence into an inversion question.

Correct Answer: es-tu venu avec elle

Q5.
Write in French: 'I put'.

Correct Answer: j'ai mis

Q6.
Write in French: 'I heard'.

Correct Answer: j'ai entendu

Additional material

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