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Irregular Past Participles: été, eu, fait

FoundationHigherAQA

Understand Irregular Past Participles: été, eu, fait for GCSE French with this free worksheet and full mark scheme — Foundation and Higher exam-style practice with worked answers for AQA GCSE French (8652). The very high-frequency verbs être, avoir and faire have the irregular past participles été, eu and fait.

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These worksheets and mark schemes are original, written for Virtus Academy and checked against the current AQA specification. Every worksheet comes with a full mark scheme.

Foundation

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Higher

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Topic overview

Many common verbs have irregular past participles that follow no pattern and must be memorised.

The most frequent are être giving été, avoir giving eu, and faire giving fait. So j'ai été means I was or I have been, j'ai eu means I had, and j'ai fait means I did or I made.

Others appear constantly: prendre gives pris, voir gives vu, boire gives bu, mettre gives mis, écrire gives écrit, lire gives lu, dire gives dit, and pouvoir gives pu. Note that être forms its own perfect tense with avoir, not with itself — j'ai été, never je suis été.

Revision notes

The three most common

Être gives été: j'ai été — I was or I have been.

Avoir gives eu: j'ai eu — I had. Faire gives fait: j'ai fait — I did or I made. All three take avoir as their auxiliary.

Other frequent irregulars

Prendre gives pris. Voir gives vu. Boire gives bu. Mettre gives mis.

Écrire gives écrit. Lire gives lu. Dire gives dit. Pouvoir gives pu. Vouloir gives voulu. Devoir gives dû, with a circumflex.

Être takes avoir

The perfect tense of être is j'ai été, not je suis été.

This surprises students, but être is not one of the verbs that takes être as its auxiliary. The same applies to avoir: j'ai eu.

Key points

  • Irregular participles must be memorised.
  • Être gives été.
  • Avoir gives eu.
  • Faire gives fait.
  • Prendre gives pris and voir gives vu.
  • Être forms its perfect tense with avoir.

Worked examples

Example 1

Give the past participle of faire and use it in the je form. [2 marks]

Working

faitgive the past participle
J'ai faituse it with the auxiliary avoir

Example 2

Translate: I have been. [2 marks]

Working

J'ai étéuse avoir with the participle of être
Être takes avoir as its auxiliary, not itselfexplain the auxiliary choice

Example 3

Give the past participles of prendre and voir. [2 marks]

Working

prendre gives prisgive the first participle
voir gives vugive the second participle

Common mistakes

  • Writing je suis été.

    Être takes avoir: j'ai été.

  • Applying regular patterns to irregular verbs.

    Faire does not give faisé; it gives fait.

  • Confusing eu and été.

    Eu is from avoir; été is from être.

  • Omitting the circumflex on dû.

    It distinguishes it from the partitive du.

Exam tips

  • Memorise the irregular participles individually.
  • Remember être and avoir both take avoir.
  • Learn the most frequent ones first.
  • Watch the circumflex on dû.

Key terms

Irregular participle
A past participle not following the regular pattern.
Été
The past participle of être.
Eu
The past participle of avoir.
Fait
The past participle of faire.

Related topics

Written and reviewed against the current AQA specification. Spotted an error? Let us know.