This week, students have begun to review/learn le passé composé, a past tense we use in French.
Student began work on writing 3 sentences in the futur proche (see last blog entry) and 3 sentences in the passé composé. This written work is to be completed over the weekend. Next week, we will tackle the pronunciation to prepare for oral presentations. Students who are not comfortable presenting in front of the entire class have the opportunity to schedule a time to present individually in front of me.
The past tense can seem complicated, but the rules for forming it are clearly expressed in handouts the students received. It is imperative that students know the present tense conjugation of etre and avoir, which I have been asking them to do since September. There are some helpful documents included at the end of this post.
A sentence written in le passé composé has 3 primary components:
1) The subject (je, tu, il, elle, nous, vous, ils, elles or a noun)
2) The auxiliary (etre or avoir in the present tense - use etre if the verb is on the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP list or if it is a reflexive verb)
3) The participe passé (The primary verb - if it ends in ER, change the er to é; if it ends in IR, change the ir to i; if it ends in RE, change the re to u; if it is in the irregular box, just write the irregular participe passé that is listed)
Example 1:
- primary verb is vendre, to be conjugated with the subject nous
- vendre is NOT on the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP list and is NOT a reflexive verb -- this means we use AVOIR (Nous avons)
- vendre ends with an RE, which we change to u (Nous avons vendu-- We have sold/We sold)
Example 2:
- primary verb is aller, to be conjugated with the subject elles
- aller IS on the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP list, so we use ETRE (Elles sont)
- aller ends in RE, which we change to é (Elles sont allé)
*TAKING IT FURTHER WITH ETRE VERBS* (For Grade 8's, as well as Grade 7's who are ready for the next step)
1) FAIRE L'ACCORD
With etre verbs, we do something that is called "Faire l'accord" -- "Making the agreement". This means that we need to make the participe passé reflect the gender and the number of the subject, much like we did with our work on adjectives (fun fact - oftentimes, past participles are used as adjectives as well, such as "Je suis convaincu(e)" -- I am convinced).
- If the subject is feminine (ex. elle or a feminine noun), add an e to the end of the participe passé (Example: Elle est allée)
- If the subject is plural (ex. nous, vous, ils or a plural noun), add an s to the end of the participe passé (Example: Nous sommes allés)
- If the subject is feminine and plural (ex. elles or a feminine plural noun), add an es to the end of the participe passé (Example: Elle sont allées)
2) REFLEXIVE VERBS
Any verb that is preceded by "se" is called a reflexive verb. All of these verbs also use etre as an auxiliaire. This means you will need to "faire l'accord", as described above.
If your subject is "je", change the "se" to "me" and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Je me suis lavé)
If your subject if "tu", change the "se" to "te" and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Tu t'es lavé)
If your subject is "il/elle/ils/elles", keep "se" as it is and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Il s'est lavé, Elles se sont lavées)
If your subject is "nous", change the "se" to "nous" and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Nous nous sommes lavés)
If your subject is "vous", change the "se" to "vous" and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Vous vous etes lavés)
Student began work on writing 3 sentences in the futur proche (see last blog entry) and 3 sentences in the passé composé. This written work is to be completed over the weekend. Next week, we will tackle the pronunciation to prepare for oral presentations. Students who are not comfortable presenting in front of the entire class have the opportunity to schedule a time to present individually in front of me.
The past tense can seem complicated, but the rules for forming it are clearly expressed in handouts the students received. It is imperative that students know the present tense conjugation of etre and avoir, which I have been asking them to do since September. There are some helpful documents included at the end of this post.
A sentence written in le passé composé has 3 primary components:
1) The subject (je, tu, il, elle, nous, vous, ils, elles or a noun)
2) The auxiliary (etre or avoir in the present tense - use etre if the verb is on the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP list or if it is a reflexive verb)
3) The participe passé (The primary verb - if it ends in ER, change the er to é; if it ends in IR, change the ir to i; if it ends in RE, change the re to u; if it is in the irregular box, just write the irregular participe passé that is listed)
Example 1:
- primary verb is vendre, to be conjugated with the subject nous
- vendre is NOT on the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP list and is NOT a reflexive verb -- this means we use AVOIR (Nous avons)
- vendre ends with an RE, which we change to u (Nous avons vendu-- We have sold/We sold)
Example 2:
- primary verb is aller, to be conjugated with the subject elles
- aller IS on the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP list, so we use ETRE (Elles sont)
- aller ends in RE, which we change to é (Elles sont allé)
*TAKING IT FURTHER WITH ETRE VERBS* (For Grade 8's, as well as Grade 7's who are ready for the next step)
1) FAIRE L'ACCORD
With etre verbs, we do something that is called "Faire l'accord" -- "Making the agreement". This means that we need to make the participe passé reflect the gender and the number of the subject, much like we did with our work on adjectives (fun fact - oftentimes, past participles are used as adjectives as well, such as "Je suis convaincu(e)" -- I am convinced).
- If the subject is feminine (ex. elle or a feminine noun), add an e to the end of the participe passé (Example: Elle est allée)
- If the subject is plural (ex. nous, vous, ils or a plural noun), add an s to the end of the participe passé (Example: Nous sommes allés)
- If the subject is feminine and plural (ex. elles or a feminine plural noun), add an es to the end of the participe passé (Example: Elle sont allées)
2) REFLEXIVE VERBS
Any verb that is preceded by "se" is called a reflexive verb. All of these verbs also use etre as an auxiliaire. This means you will need to "faire l'accord", as described above.
If your subject is "je", change the "se" to "me" and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Je me suis lavé)
If your subject if "tu", change the "se" to "te" and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Tu t'es lavé)
If your subject is "il/elle/ils/elles", keep "se" as it is and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Il s'est lavé, Elles se sont lavées)
If your subject is "nous", change the "se" to "nous" and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Nous nous sommes lavés)
If your subject is "vous", change the "se" to "vous" and place it before the auxiliary (Ex. Vous vous etes lavés)
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