1. THE PERFECT TENSE The Perfect Tense is used to talk about the past. Formation The Perfect Tense in French is formed of two parts: i) an AUXILIARY VERBii) a PAST PARTICIPLE 95% of French verbs use the present tense ofavoir as their auxiliary verb. AVOIR j'ai – I have tu as – you (s/fam) have il/ elle/ on a – he has nous avons – we have vous avez – you (pl/pol) have ils ont – they (m) have Regular Verbs form their past participle in the following ways: ER VerbsRE VerbsIR Verbs jouer = jouévendre = vendufinir = fini

2. Examples J'ai joué au tennis. I played tennis / have played tennis) Mon frère a vendu son vélo. My brother sold his bike / has sold his bike) Elles ont fini les devoirs. They finished / have finished the homework)

3. Irregular Past Participles InfinitiveMeaningPast ParticipleMeaning avoirto haveeuhad boireto drinkbudrank devoirto have todûdûhad to écrireto writeécritwrote/ have written êtreto beétéhave been faireto do/makefaitdid/have done lireto readluread/ have read pouvoirto be able topuwas able to prendreto takepristook/ have taken recevoirto receivereçureceived voirto seevusaw/ have seen vouloirto wantvouluwanted

4. Irregular Past Participles To form the Perfect Tense of these irregular verbs, just use: 1.the correct part of avoir- to have 2. the irregular past participle. Examples: Jai lu le journal.I have read the paper. Il a fait ses devoirs. He did his homework. Vous avez pris le train?Did you take the train?