📖LearnModule 9 · Lesson 1 of 30Independent User · CEFR B2, completedUnit 1 · Le récit écrit
Trois couches de passé
Module 9 of the free French course (CEFR B2, completed), lesson 1 of 30: Written narration uses three pasts at once. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 1.
The words
French
English
Say it
j'avais promis
I had promised
zhah-veh proh-MEE
la couche
the layer
lah KOOSH
promettre
to promise
proh-MEHTR
le récit
the narrative
luh ray-SEE
raconter en détail
to tell in detail
rah-koh(n)-tay ah(n) day-TAHY
l'ordre chronologiquemasculine — the article elides to l'
chronological order
lordr kroh-noh-loh-ZHEEK
auparavant
beforehand
oh-pah-rah-VAH(n)
ensuite
next
ah(n)-SWEET
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
Written narration uses three pasts at once, and B2 is where you stop choosing them one at a time. The imparfait paints, the passé composé moves, the plus-que-parfait explains what came before.
Et aussi · And also
Il pleuvait. Je suis sorti quand même, parce que j'avais promis. Scene, event, earlier reason — three tenses, one sentence, and a reader who never has to ask when anything happened.
Attention · Watch out
Three layers, three jobs: imparfait paints, passé composé moves, plus-que-parfait explains what was already true. One sentence may hold all three; do not flatten them into one tense.
être, plus-que-parfait — the table
je avais été · tu avais été · il/elle avait été · nous avions été · vous aviez été · ils/elles avaient été
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with j'avais promis.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write out être, plus-que-parfait in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
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.