KS3 · French · Year 9
School in France - then and now: -er verbs imperfect tense
How things used to be: imperfect tense, ordinal numbers
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/9
Your learning goal
I can understand and use the imperfect tense in the 1st person to describe what I do now and used to do in the context of school.
1 of 9
School in France - then and now: -er verbs imperfect tense: 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 understand and use the imperfect tense in the 1st person to describe what I do now and used to do in the context of school.
Key learning points
- [s] is pronounced as in 'maison'.
- Add 'la' to sixième, cinquième, quatrième + troisième to say school years. The lower the number, the older the pupils.
- In English, knowledge is singular + plural. When you have lots of knowledge in French, add s for plural, connissances
- Use the imperfect tense to talk about events and actions that used to happen regularly in the past.
- For the 1st person imperfect, take je + the stem of present tense ‘nous’ form. Add the ending -ais. e.g. 'je regardais'.
Words to know
- [s]
- pronounced as in 'maison'
- imperfect tense
- tense used to describe how things were or used to be in the past, or to say what was happening
Common mistakes
School years work the same in English and French.
French uses 'la' before ordinal numbers for school years, the lower the number, the higher the school year e.g. 'sixième' is equivalent to Y7 and 'cinquième' is Y8. Use 'en' to say you're in a school year e.g. 'en sixième'.
For parents, carers and teachers
- The second cycle opens up more opportunites for discussing differences between French and English schools that pupils may already know.