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Le passé at A1 — first steps with the passé composé

« passe compose vs imparfait » — jump to your level:A1A2B1B2C1C2Native

Talk about yesterday from day one: avoir + participle, and three magic participles.

Your first past tense

« J’ai mangé », « j’ai fini », « j’ai vu » — small verb (avoir) + participle. That’s enough to tell your whole day.

Teaser for later: you’ll also hear « c’était super ! » (it was great) — that’s the imparfait, the other past. At A1, just collect « c’était » as a chunk.

PC vs ImparfaitA1
avoir+participe

💡 « C’était super ! » — collectionnez ce chunk pour plus tard.

FRENCH’S COOL · learnfrench.co/resources

🔊 Example sentences

J’ai mangé une pizza.I ate a pizza.
J’ai vu un bon film.I saw a good film.
C’était super !It was great!

💡 Your A1 goal

At A1 your goal is recognition and first use: understand the pattern when you hear it, and produce the two or three simplest forms without thinking. Accuracy over ambition — short and correct beats long and broken.

Comfortable? Level up to Passe Compose Vs Imparfait at A2.

On a fini à midi.We finished at noon.

✍️ Practice

J’___ mangé au restaurant. (small verb)

Show answer

ai

Tu as ___ le film ? (voir) (participle)

Show answer

vu

C’___ génial ! (it was) (chunk)

Show answer

était

🎮 Practise

🧩 Sentence builder rebuild the negation

🎮 Practise this with games

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