LearnModule 3 · Lesson 5 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2, first halfUnit 1 · Le passé composé — the past, part I

The past asks and denies

Module 3 of the free French course (CEFR A2, first half), lesson 5 of 30: Questions and negation work exactly as before — they wrap around avoir: Tu as mangé? On this page: 6 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 5.

The words

French	English	Say it
tu as mangé?	did you eat?	tew ah mah(n)-ZHAY
est-ce que tu as fini?	have you finished?	ess kuh tew ah fee-NEE
je n'ai pas vu	I did not see	zhuh nay pah VEW
il n'a pas fait ses devoirs	he did not do his homework	eel nah pah feh say duh-VWAHR
déjà	already	day-ZHAH
pas encore	not yet	pah zah(n)-KOR

Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.

Hear the words

Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.

La règle · The rule

Questions and negation work exactly as before — they wrap around avoir: Tu as mangé? Est-ce que tu as fini? Je n'ai pas vu le chat.

Et aussi · And also

The ne…pas sandwich closes on avoir, not the participle: je N'ai PAS parlé.

Attention · Watch out

The ne…pas sandwich closes around avoir, not the participle: je n'ai pas vu, never je n'ai vu pas.

Do it now — on paper

Say all 6 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with tu as mangé?.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 5 in Module 3 are the written half of this page.

This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.

Keep these words

Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.

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