School in France - then and now: -er verbs imperfect tense
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can understand and use the imperfect tense in the 1st person to describe what I do now and used to do in the context of school.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- [s] is pronounced as in 'maison'.
- Add 'la' to sixième, cinquième, quatrième + troisième to say school years. The lower the number, the older the pupils.
- In English, knowledge is singular + plural. When you have lots of knowledge in French, add s for plural, connissances
- Use the imperfect tense to talk about events and actions that used to happen regularly in the past.
- For the 1st person imperfect, take je + the stem of present tense ‘nous’ form. Add the ending -ais. e.g. 'je regardais'.
Keywords
[s] - pronounced as in 'maison'
Imperfect tense - tense used to describe how things were or used to be in the past, or to say what was happening
Common misconception
School years work the same in English and French.
French uses 'la' before ordinal numbers for school years, the lower the number, the higher the school year e.g. 'sixième' is equivalent to Y7 and 'cinquième' is Y8. Use 'en' to say you're in a school year e.g. 'en sixième'.
Teacher tip
The second cycle opens up more opportunites for discussing differences between French and English schools that pupils may already know.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which word is the auxiliary verb in this sentence? J'ai volé un sac.
Q2.Match each subject with the correct part of the verb avoir.
ai
as
a
avons
avez
ont
Q3.Put the words in the correct order.
Q4.How do you say: 'I haven’t practised' in French?
Q5.Fill in the blank with the word for 'me': Selon , le vol est un crime.
Q6.Which of these sentences are in the past tense?
Assessment exit quiz
5 Questions
Q1.In which word is the letter 's' pronounced like the 's' sound in maison?
Q2.Match the French school year to its correct English equivalent.
Year 7
Year 10
Year 9
Year 8
Q3.Translate into French: 'I am in Year 9' (Use words not numbers)
Q4.Which sentence is correct in French?
Q5.Which sentence correctly means: 'I used to practise'?
To help you plan your 9 French lesson on: School in France - then and now: -er verbs imperfect tense, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 9 French lesson on: School in France - then and now: -er verbs imperfect tense, 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.