French verbs

[queenofthemountain]

DD1 has just finished Yr 8 and is completely at sea with French Verbs.Completely and Utterly.
They follow 'Tricolore' French scheme She has done present, imperfect, perfect I think.Do you think I should do some work with her over the holidays to try and really nail them so she doesn't get further behind next term.If so could anyone recommend some resources?French is compulsory at GCSE at her school
So i am looking at a perfect tense test here and she has got zero out of 20. one thing she does know is when to use avoir and when to use etre.
Things she got wrong
1 Irregular past participles
2 she can't conjugate or correctly spell avoir and atre (after 2 years of learning them!!!)
3 she agrees endings on the past participle which I think you only do with etre verbs
She is dyslexic and does struggle a lot with French!

[PollyannaWhittier]

"she can't conjugate or correctly spell avoir and etre"
My italian teacher (don't ask !) used to sing the verb etre to the tune of 'hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go'. If I still remember that now, it might help to stick the conjugation in your dd's mind !

remembering not to agree the endings on avoir verbs is a tricky one which I think just comes from practice, I still used to do it occasionally when I was doing AS French

If she likes quizzes, there are a few on sporcle including this one of irregular past participles www.sporcle.com/games/tromer/french_past_part

[PollyannaWhittier]

oops, pressed enter too soon. I meant to add that that one is a rather extensive list, but there might be others targeted a better level.

[AMumInScotland]

With the avoir/etre endings, I find it helps to remember that you are kind of saying "I am returned" (or whatever) with the etre ones, so if you are female, or plural, then it has to agree with that. But with avoir it would be "I have done whatever" so you're not describing yourself.

[IndridCold]

I find this website very useful. It has clear explanations of each aspect of grammar with interactive exercises.

[holmessweetholmes]

I'd recommend //www.languagesonline.org.uk . I'm a Secondary languages teacher and we use it a lot. You are absolutely right that she needs to nail the verbs. You simply cannot speak or write sensible French unless you know them. Feel free to pm me if you need further suggestions!

[castlesintheair]

I'd recommend buying a 'guide de conjugaison'. My DCs use a Bescherelle one.

[Scoobyblue]

You definitely need to nail the verbs. They are like the times tables of French! Practice, practice, recite, recite, recite - it's the only way if they don't come naturally.

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

Who are the band they've signed?

(Hoping it's a case of mis-hearing rather than simply being too old to have heard of them...)

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

Sorry - wrong thread.

[westcountrywoman]

Have you had a look at verb wheels? Something like this might help:

www.little-linguist.co.uk/search/for/French+verb+wheel/

Most dictionaries have verb tables in too

[threepiecesuite]

There's a song about etre verbs on YouTube sung to the tune of Rhianna's Umbrella - it's cringey but it works.

[Tinuviel]

This American university site is very good and it's beginner's course, so covers everything. It has an explanation/examples and then online exercises to do. Scroll down to verbs for avoir/être and tenses for perfect/imperfect tenses.

You could always use Languages Online, although I'm not that keen on it myself.

I was also going to link to RealFrench but they are rebuilding the site at the moment. It links to Galore Park books and will definitely have something on perfect/imperfect tenses (both come up in book 2).

[Tinuviel]

'a beginners' course'!!