1 of 21

The perfect tense (avoir)

‘s/he’ and ‘they’

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Rachel Hawkes

2 of 21

Things that have happened in the past: �The Perfect Tense (for most verbs!)

they: use ‘ont’

Ils ont fait le lit.🡪

Jean et Marie ont donné beaucoup.🡪

Mes parents ont pris le train.🡪

Who did it: s/he or they?

For what one person (‘he’ or ‘she’) did, use ‘a’ before the main verb.

For what more than one person (‘they’) did, use ‘ont’ before the main verb.

she / he: use ‘a’

Il a fait le lit.🡪

Marie a donné beaucoup.🡪

Ma soeur a pris le train.🡪

�

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

‘a’ and ‘ont’ are called an ‘auxiliary’. They are parts of the verb avoir (to have).

He made the bed.

Marie gave a lot.

My sister took the train.

They made the bed.

Jean and Marie gave a lot.

My parents took the train.

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Rachel Hawkes

3 of 21

Les sports

Écouter

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

A

B

A

B

A

B

1

2

3

4

5

6

A

B

A

B

A

B

How many people did each sport? Just one person or more than one? Choose A or B.

Pendant les vacances, il… / ils…

Your French friend has just done activities week in his school. Some sports were done by one friend, others by more than one. He’s out in the country walking with his parents, and it’s very noisy, so you can’t hear every word he’s saying!

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Click on each number to hear the audio, twice for each sentence.�After the number, students hear a sheep noise in place of the pronoun ‘il’ or ‘ils’, indicated by [xxx] in the transcript, below. This is to focus their attention solely on the auxiliary verb form.�Answers are animated to appear on a click, as ticks by the correct answers.�The task has been designed to avoid the need for photocopies. Students number 1-6 and write A or B.�However, if teachers prefer, the next slide has a version that can be copied.

Verb frequency rankings (1 is the most common word in French): jouer (219); faire (25); nager (>5000).�Source: Londsale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

�

Transcript: les sports

[xxx] ont joué au golf.
[xxx] a fait du ski
[xxx] ont joué au foot
[xxx] a nagé dans la mer
[xxx] a joué au tennis
[xxx] ont fait de la planche à voile

4 of 21

Les sports

How many people did each sport? Just one person or more than one? Choose A or B.

Pendant les vacances, il… / ils…

Écouter

A

B

A

B

A

B

1

2

3

4

5

6

A

B

A

B

A

B

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

5 of 21

Les sports

How many people did each sport? Just one person or more than one? Choose A or B.

Pendant les vacances, il… / ils…

Écouter

A

B

A

B

A

B

1

2

3

4

5

6

A

B

A

B

A

B

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Rachel Hawkes

6 of 21

C’est énervant

1	Mon frère	a	utlisé ma tablette.
		ont
2	Mes parents	a	écouté de la musique terrible.
		ont
3	Mes grandparents	a	regardé un film ennuyeux.
		ont
4	Ma soeur	a	invité ses amies chez nous.
		ont

Lire

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Read what this French teenager has written about what his family did at the weekend that annoyed him. Select the correct part of ‘avoir’ according to who must have done the action – one person or more than one?

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Rachel Hawkes

7 of 21

C’est énervant [cont’d]

5	Il	a	porté ma chemise favorie.
		ont
6	Elle	a	pris trop de temps dans la salle de bains.
		ont
7	Ils	a	posé trop de questions.
		ont

Lire

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

8 of 21

1	Mon frère	a	utlisé ma tablette.
		ont
2	Mes parents	a	écouté de la musique terrible.
		ont
3	Mes grandparents	a	regardé un film ennuyeux.
		ont
4	Ma soeur	a	invité ses amies chez nous.
		ont
5	Il	a	porté ma chemise favorie
		ont
6	Elle	a	pris trop de temps dans la salle de bains.
		ont
7	Ils	a	posé trop de questions.
		ont

C’est énervant�Read what this French teenager has written about what his family did that annoyed him. Circle the correct part of ‘avoir’ according to who must have done the action – one person or more than one?

Lire

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Rachel Hawkes

9 of 21

1	Mon frère	a	utlisé ma tablette.
		ont
2	Mes parents	a	écouté de la musique terrible.
		ont
3	Mes grandparents	a	regardé un film ennuyeux.
		ont
4	Ma soeur	a	invité ses amies chez nous.
		ont
5	Il	a	porté ma chemise favorie
		ont
6	Elle	a	pris trop de temps dans la salle de bains.
		ont
7	Ils	a	posé trop de questions.
		ont

C’est énervant�Read what this French teenager has written about what his family did that annoyed him. Circle the correct part of ‘avoir’ according to who must have done the action – one person or more than one?

Lire

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Rachel Hawkes

10 of 21

Qui…?

1	L’ élève Les professeurs	ont parlé dans les chambres très tard.
2	Les professeurs L’ élève	a pris beaucoup de photos.
3	Le prof de français Les élèves	a oublié le passeport.

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

These sentences describe what happened during a school trip to France. �Decide whether the sentences are talking about what the teachers did or what the pupils did. Tick the one person or persons that must go before the verb.

Take care! Teachers or pupils could do all these things. Only the auxiliary verb tells you which is the right meaning.

Lire

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Rachel Hawkes

11 of 21

Qui…? [cont’d]

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Lire

4	Les professeurs L’ élève	ont refusé de manger les fruits.
5	La fille Les profs	a donné les instructions.
6	Jean Monsieur Lebrun et Madame Hugo	ont parlé beaucoup en anglais.

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Rachel Hawkes

12 of 21

Qui…?

These sentences describe what happened during a school trip to France. Decide whether the sentences are talking about what the teachers did or what the pupils did. Tick the one person or persons that must go before the verb. � Take care! Teachers or pupils could do all these things. Only the auxiliary verb tells you which is the right meaning.
1	L’ élève Les professeurs	ont parlé dans les chambres très tard.
2	Les professeurs L’ élève	a pris beaucoup de photos.
3	Le prof de français Les élèves	a oublié le passeport.
4	Les professeurs L’ élève	ont refusé de manger les fruits.
5	La fille Les profs	a donné les instructions.
6	Jean Monsieur Lebrun et Madame Hugo	ont parlé beaucoup en anglais.

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Lire

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

13 of 21

Qui…?

These sentences describe what happened during a school trip to France. Decide whether the sentences are talking about what the teachers did or what the pupils did. Tick the one person or persons that must go before the verb. � Take care! Teachers or pupils could do all these things. Only the auxiliary verb tells you which is the right meaning.
1	L’ élève Les professeurs	ont parlé dans les chambres très tard.
2	Les professeurs L’ élève	a pris beaucoup de photos.
3	Le prof de français Les élèves	a oublié le passeport.
4	Les professeurs L’ élève	ont refusé de manger les fruits.
5	La fille Les profs	a donné les instructions.
6	Jean Monsieur Lebrun et Madame Hugo	ont parlé beaucoup en anglais.

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Lire

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Rachel Hawkes

14 of 21

Les sports

Write a sentence to describe what these people did on their holidays. �Notice some pictures have one person and some have more than one, so use the correct part of avoir.
1
2
3
4
5
6

Écrire

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

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Rachel Hawkes

15 of 21

Need help?

Vocabulaire

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Écrire

jouer au foot	to play football
jouer au tennis	to play tennis
jouer au golf	to play golf
faire de la planche à voile	to windsurf
faire du ski	to ski
nager dans la mer	to swim in the sea

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Rachel Hawkes

16 of 21

French Blank Template

1	Mes frères	parlé au trop longtemps.

2	Mes parents	écouté de terrible.

3	Mes grandparents	regardé ennuyeux.

4	Ma soeur	invité les amies à .

5	Mon frère	mangé tout .

Parler et écouter

French Blank Template

C’est énervant

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Partner A: Tell your partner about what your family did last week. Sometimes you talk about what one person did, sometimes about more than one person. Your partner makes notes.

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Rachel Hawkes

Teacher note 1: It will never be possible to control for all the words that the learners don’t know in production activities (without giving learners a full writing frame, but such frames don’t push them to recall words and are unlikely to help create that ‘desirable difficulty’). The aim here is to focus on producing ‘a’ or ‘ont’ in order to express meaning so their partner can understand. They would probably have met the nouns before. If not, they are provided on the next slide for those who need support or could be learnt or revised quickly before this activity (they are almost all cognates with English). They may not have been taught mon/ma/mes at this stage, but it is unlikely that they won’t understand what they mean, and they are not having to produce them independently, as the focus here in firmly on the auxiliary.

Teacher note 2: It is also impossible in French to get rid of ALL other cues to who did an action, as the subject is obligatory in French (except in imperatives). So, in this example, the partner who is listening (partner B) might spot the difference between ‘mes’ and ‘mon/ma’and use that to work out who did the activity! It is unlikely because it comes right at the beginning of the sentence, but if they do, this is ok, and arguably a useful learning process too.

Verb frequency rankings (1 is the most common word in French): parler (106); écouter (429) regarder (425); inviter (624); (manger (1338).

Source: Londsale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

17 of 21

Need help?

Vocabulaire

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

téléphone / portable	phone
la musique	music
un film	a film
la maison	the house
le chocolat	chocolate

Parler et écouter

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Rachel Hawkes

18 of 21

French Blank Template

Partner B response grid Write down the detail of what your partner tells you.
	Activity?	Who?	One person (1) or more than one >1)?
1
2
3
4
5

C’est énervant

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Parler et écouter

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

19 of 21

French Blank Template

1	Mes soeurs	pris trop de temps dans .

2	Mes parents	utilisé ma .

3	Mes grandparents	passé beaucoup de temps dans .

4	Ma soeur	mangé toute .

5	Mon frère	regardé terrible.

C’est énervant

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Parler et écouter

Partner B: Tell your partner about what your family did last week. Sometimes you talk about what one person did, sometimes about more than one person. Your partner makes notes.

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Rachel Hawkes

20 of 21

Need help?

Vocabulaire

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Parler et écouter

la salle de bains	bathroom
tablette	tablet
le jardin	the garden
la pizza	the pizza
un film	a film

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Rachel Hawkes

21 of 21

French Blank Template

Partner A response grid Write down the detail of what your partner tells you.
	Activity?	Who?	One person (1) or more than one (>1)?
1
2
3
4
5

Emma Marsden / Victoria Hobson

Parler et écouter

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes