Montreal - habitual and one-off past events: imperfect and perfect
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can use the imperfect and perfect tenses to talk about one-off events and events that happened regularly.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- Adjectives ending -al in English often end in -al or more commonly -el in French. The feminine form is -elle.
- Use the perfect tense for specific one-off past events and the imperfect for regularly repeated past events.
- Use the present tense of avoir/être and a past participle to form the perfect tense.
- Use the present tense of the 'nous' form, remove -ons and add -ais/ait for the singular imperfect tense.
- The verb shows if the action used to happen all the time or was a single, completed event; time phrases give detail.
Keywords
Imperfect tense - tense used to describe how things were or used to be in the past
Common misconception
You can use a time phrase to show whether you mean a completed action in the past or a regular past event/activity.
In French, the verb alone already shows whether you mean a completed action in the past (use the formation rule for the perfect tense) or a regular past event/activity (use the formation rule for the imperfect tense). Time phrases can also be added.
Teacher tip
Task B3 offers an opportunity to discuss differences between the québécois accent and a French accent, including the speed, ennunciation and more nasal pronunciation of the [in] sound.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Match the vocabulary
bill
restaurant
waiter
safety
table
theft
Q2.Give the French for 'to order'.
Q3.Which months are missing? janvier, février, _________, avril, mai, juin, juillet,__________, septembre, octobre, __________, décembre.
Q4.Which sentence is correct?
Q5.Which of the following are gender neutral pronouns?
Q6.Which is the correct verb? Chaque matin, iel __________ un café.
Assessment exit quiz
5 Questions
Q1.Which of these adjectives are in the masculine form?
Q2.Chose the correct adjective to describe the building. Un bâtiment __________.
Q3.Put the words in order to say what this person did on Mondays. Start with 'le'.
Q4.Choose the correct phrase to fill the gap. A midi, __________ à la cantine avec mes amis.
Q5.Which of these words tells you when something happened?
To help you plan your 9 French lesson on: Montreal - habitual and one-off past events: imperfect and perfect, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 9 French lesson on: Montreal - habitual and one-off past events: imperfect and perfect, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 French lessons from the How things used to be: imperfect tense, ordinal numbers unit, dive into the full secondary French curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.