KS4 · French · Year 10
Notre planète est en crise : infinitives as nouns, 'en train de' and 'venir de'
My neighbourhood: Mon nouveau pays
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/8
Your learning goal
I can describe what is in the process of happening and what has just happened in the context of the environment.
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Notre planète est en crise : infinitives as nouns, 'en train de' and 'venir de': slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.
Original teaching resources
The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.
Download original PowerPoint ↓What you’ll learn
I can describe what is in the process of happening and what has just happened in the context of the environment.
Key learning points
- To talk about something that is 'in the process of' happening, we can use 'être en train de' + infinitive.
- The phrase 'être en train de' is usually translated using the -ing form of the verb in English.
- To talk about something that has just happened, we can use 'venir de' + infinitive.
- The English past participle translates the French infinitive when using 'venir de' + infinitive.
Words to know
- periphrastic phrase
- a single idea expressed by several words, often including two verbs, e.g., 'is going to go'
- past participle
- verb form that forms the perfect tense, together with the auxiliary verb
Common mistakes
When using 'venir de' (to have just), the next word needs to be a past participle, like in English.
In French, 'venir de' is like every other French verb followed by 'de'. It is always followed by a second verb in the infinitive.
For parents, carers and teachers
- All practice tasks in Cycle B have 2 versions, Option 1 and Option 2. Option 1 is aimed at Higher and Option 2 is aimed at Foundation. Only the Option 1 tasks feature in the video.