New
New
Year 11
AQA

On a fait les courses : irregular past participles, perfect tense modal verbs

I can describe a food shopping trip in France, using a range of past participles, including modal verbs.

New
New
Year 11
AQA

On a fait les courses : irregular past participles, perfect tense modal verbs

I can describe a food shopping trip in France, using a range of past participles, including modal verbs.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Three common irregular verbs and their past participles are: avoir (eu), faire (fait), boire (bu).
  2. [u] is pronounced as in 'tu'. Many past participles end in 'u' and rhyme with each other.
  3. The past participles of the four modal verbs are: dû, pu, voulu, and su.
  4. Modal verbs in the perfect tense use 'avoir' as the auxiliary verb.

Keywords

  • Irregular - describes a word that does not follow the regular pattern

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

Common misconception

It is easy to predict the past participles of irregular verbs.

The past participles of irregular verbs must be learnt carefully. There are, however, similarities that are worth noting e.g. many irregular past participles end -u e.g. pu, voulu, cru, su.


To help you plan your year 11 french lesson on: On a fait les courses : irregular past participles, perfect tense modal verbs, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

For writing task B3, students requiring more support could refer to the previous task to use as a model. Teachers might also want to edit the task and to reduce the suggested content e.g. remove the final bullet point.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Mini whiteboards and pens would be useful, if available.

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

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match the French irregular verb on the left with its correct past participle on the right.
Correct Answer:avoir,eu

eu

Correct Answer:boire,bu

bu

Correct Answer:croire,cru

cru

Correct Answer:pouvoir,pu

pu

Correct Answer:voir,vu

vu

Correct Answer:aller,allé

allé

Q2.
Which of the following is the past participle of the modal verb vouloir (to want)?
vais
viens
Correct answer: voulu
voir
Q3.
Put the following words in the correct order to form a grammatically correct sentence in the perfect tense.
1 - J'
2 - ai
3 - voulu
4 - du
5 - pain
Q4.
Which of these sentences correctly uses the past participle of boire (to drink)?
J'ai boire un café.
Je suis bu un café.
Correct answer: J'ai bu un café.
Je suis boire un café.
Q5.
What is the past participle for the modal verb 'devoir'?
Correct Answer: dû, du
Q6.
In French, what auxiliary verb do you need to form the perfect tense of a verb when it's accompanied by a modal verb?
Être
Correct answer: Avoir
Aller
Venir

5 Questions

Q1.
Which of these is the correct past participle of the verb faire?
Correct answer: fait
faire
fais
faisant
Q2.
Match each French word to its English meaning.
Correct Answer:se soucier,to worry

to worry

Correct Answer:fatigant,tiring

tiring

Correct Answer:distance,distance

distance

Correct Answer:confortable,comfortable

comfortable

Correct Answer:souci,concern

concern

Correct Answer:discussion,discussion

discussion

Q3.
Put the parts of the sentence in the correct order.
1 - j'
2 - ai
3 - bu
4 - un
5 - jus
6 - d'orange
Q4.
Which sentence correctly uses a modal verb in the perfect tense?
Correct answer: J'ai dû attendre.
J'ai attendre dû.
J'ai dû attendé.
J'ai attendé dû.
Q5.
Complete the sentence with the correct past participle of vouloir: Nous avons acheter un produit.
Correct Answer: voulu

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