New
New
Year 11
AQA

Je sortais la poubelle quand ... :perfect, imperfect, relative clauses, negation

I can talk about past events using the imperfect tense and the perfect tense, relative clauses and negation.

New
New
Year 11
AQA

Je sortais la poubelle quand ... :perfect, imperfect, relative clauses, negation

I can talk about past events using the imperfect tense and the perfect tense, relative clauses and negation.

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. The imperfect tense is used to describe what 'was happening' or what you 'were doing' when something else happened.
  2. Form the imperfect by removing -ons from 'nous' present tense and adding:-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient
  3. Où and quand can be used in relative clauses to detail where or when something was happening.
  4. For 'neither...nor', ne precedes the verb and each ni precedes one of the negated qualities/nouns.
  5. Ne ... que means 'only'. 'Que' follows the verb and precedes the noun that is limited.

Keywords

  • Imperfect tense - tense used to describe how things were or used to be in the past, or to say what was happening

  • Relative pronoun - a pronoun that introduces a relative clause

Common misconception

The imperfect tense is only used to describe how things were or used to be in the past.

The imperfect tense is also used to say what was happening when another thing occurred where it is used in combination with the perfect tense e.g. il regardait la télé quand son portable a sonné.


To help you plan your year 11 french lesson on: Je sortais la poubelle quand ... :perfect, imperfect, relative clauses, negation, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

During the vocabulary focus in the 1st learning cycle, teachers may want to remind pupils about their personal word repertoire, and encourage them to keep adding any words that are important to them to the place set aside for this.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Mini whiteboards and pens, if available, would be useful.

Licence

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

Loading...

Some of our videos, including non-English language videos, do not have captions.

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of the following is the correct past participle form ?
recevoir
Correct answer: reçu
recevoira
recevais
Q2.
Match each French auxiliary verb form with the correct English translation.
Correct Answer:était,he/she/it used to be

he/she/it used to be

Correct Answer:avais,I/you had

I/you had

Correct Answer:étais,I/you were

I/you were

Correct Answer:avait,he/she/it had

he/she/it had

Q3.
Put the words in the correct order to form a perfect tense sentence with a negative phrase.
1 - Je
2 - n'
3 - ai
4 - pas
5 - reçu
6 - de
7 - cadeau
Q4.
Which word is the relative pronoun in this sentence? Ma sœur, qui est handicapée, a bénéficié d’un nouveau programme.
Correct Answer: qui
Q5.
Which sentence uses the correct relative pronoun to refer to an object?
Le handball qui j'ai regardé hier était amusant.
Correct answer: Le handball que j'ai regardé hier était amusant.
Le handball j'ai regardé que hier était amusant.
Le handball j'ai regardé qui hier était amusant.
Q6.
Match the sentence halves to form logical sentences.
Correct Answer:Ma,sœur a bénéficié d'un programme pour élèves handicapés.

sœur a bénéficié d'un programme pour élèves handicapés.

Correct Answer:Le,handball a été remplacé par un autre sport.

handball a été remplacé par un autre sport.

Correct Answer:Mon,frère a reçu un prix.

frère a reçu un prix.

Correct Answer:L',élève est très agréable.

élève est très agréable.

5 Questions

Q1.
Which sentence correctly uses the imperfect tense?
Il a recycler les bouteilles.
Correct answer: Il recyclait les bouteilles tous les jours.
Il recycle les bouteilles tous les jours.
Il va recycler les bouteilles.
Q2.
What is the imperfect tense stem of the verb faire?
Correct Answer: fais
Q3.
Put the words in the correct order to form a sentence with ne ...que.
1 - je
2 - n'
3 - ai
4 - reçu
5 - qu'
6 - un
7 - appareil
Q4.
Which sentence shows the imperfect used alongside the perfect tense to describe an interrupted action?
Correct answer: Elle faisait le ménage quand son frère est arrivé.
Elle a fait le ménage hier.
Elle a fait le ménage hier.
Elle fait le ménage maintenant.
Q5.
Match each sentence start with the correct ending according to the relative clause.
Correct Answer:Je faisais le ménage quand,quelqu'un a frappé à la porte.

quelqu'un a frappé à la porte.

Correct Answer:Il y a une boite chez moi où,je mets mes affaires de ménage.

je mets mes affaires de ménage.

Correct Answer:J'ai un ami qui,habite près de chez moi.

habite près de chez moi.

Correct Answer:Je n'aime pas les tâches que,je dois faire.

je dois faire.

Additional material

Download additional material