Describing family traditions and celebrations in French

• Use the perfect tense to talk about celebrations that have happened in the past.

• Most verbs form the perfect tense using the auxiliary verbavoir followed by a past participle .

• A small group of verbs form the perfect tense with être.

• This guide contains reading and listening practice.

Useful present tense phrases to describe how you normally celebrate your birthday include:

Useful phrases to describe past celebrations include:

Useful phrases to describe future birthdays include:

Remember

To talk about someone else’s birthday, you need to say ‘the birthday of …’ in French.

For example:

Aujourd’hui, c’est l’anniversaire de ma meilleure amie. - Today is my best friend’s birthday.

The perfect tense is used to talk about something that happened in the past and that is completely finished.

For example:

J’ai organisé une fête. - I organised a party.

Nous avons dansé jusqu’à minuit. - We danced until midnight.

It can also be used to express the English present perfect tense.

For example:

Il a fait un gâteau. - He has made a cake.

Elles ont réservé le restaurant. - They have booked the restaurant.

These are the key elements needed to form the perfect tense with avoir:

1. The subject

The subject could be a pronoun, eg je, tu or il, or a name, a person or a thing, such as Marie, ma mère or le livre.

2. The present tense of avoir

This is known as the auxiliary verb – a verb that helps to make the perfect tense.

3. The past participle of the verb

To form the past participle of regular verbs, remove the er, ir or re and add the following endings:

• parler (to speak) – parlé (spoken)

• choisir (to choose) – choisi (chosen)

• entendre (to hear) – entendu (heard)

For example:

Elle a parlé. – She spoke. / She has spoken.

Ils ont choisi. – They chose. / They have chosen.

Nous avons entendu. – We heard. / We have heard.

Some of the most commonly used verbs have irregular past participles. For example:

• être (to be) – été (been)

• avoir (to have) – eu (had)

• faire (to do/make) – fait (done/made)

Other important verbs that have irregular past participles include:

• ouvrir (to open) – ouvert (opened)

• prendre (to take) – pris (taken)

• traduire (to translate) – traduit (translated)

Choose the correct French translation for the following sentences.

Find out more about using the perfect tense in the Perfect tense with 'avoir' in French guide.

Read the email from a French-speaking friend in Canada, telling you about their recent party. Read through it and then answer the questions below in English.

Ma meilleure amie a décidé d’organiser une fête surprise pour mon anniversaire. Je ne sais pas comment elle a gardé le secret ! Elle a invité tous nos copains et tout le monde a porté un chapeau drôle.

J’ai adoré le choix de musique – elle a enregistré toutes mes chansons préférées ! Mes amis m’ont fait rire avec leurs danses.

Malheureusement, un de nos amis était malade à la fin de la soirée. Je pense qu’il a mangé trop de gâteau au chocolat. Il a laissé des marques sur le mur donc j’ai dû chercher un chiffon.

Useful vocabulary for describing other celebrations includes:

Did you know?

PACS stands for Pacte Civile de Solidarité (civil solidarity pact). It is a civil partnership that offers an alternative to marriage in France for both straight and same-sex couples.

All vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

The majority of verbs in French use avoir (to have) as their auxiliary verb in the perfect tense.

A small number of important verbs use être (to be) instead as their auxiliary verb.

They are usually verbs that involve movement, including:

• aller - to go

• arriver - to arrive

• sortir - to go out

• partir - to leave

There are three key elements needed to form the perfect tense with être.

1. The subject

The subject could be a pronoun, eg je, tu or il, or a name, a person or a thing (eg Marie/ma mère/le livre).

2. The present tense of être

This is the auxiliary verb – it helps you to make the perfect tense.

3. The past participle of the verb

To form the past participle of regular verbs, remove the er, ir or re and add the following endings:

• aller (to go) – allé (gone)

• partir (to leave) – parti (left)

• descendre (to go down) – descendu (gone down)

Some of the verbs that have être as their auxiliary verb have irregular past participles:

• venir (to come) – venu (come)

• naître (to be born) – né (been born)

• mourir (to die) – mort (died)

The key difference between avoir verbs and être verbs is that when using être, the past participle has to agree with the subject of the verb, in gender and in number:

For example:

Elle est allée au mariage. - She went to the wedding.

Ils sont sortis ensemble pendant 10 ans. – They (masculine, or mixed) went out together for 10 years.

The most common verbs that take être can be memorised using the acronym MR VANS TRAMPED:

For example:

Mon petit frère est né hier. – My little brother was born yesterday.

Elle est arrivée à l’église à onze heures. – She arrived at the church at 11 o’clock.

Nous sommes allés au restaurant. – We went to the restaurant.

Les enfants sont entrés après le couple. – The children entered after the couple.

Find out more about using the perfect tense in the Perfect tense with 'être' in French guide.

Choose the correct event that each person is describing.

Press Start to begin the activity.

Click or tap on the image below to see a list of useful vocabulary to use when talking about family traditions and celebrations.

The following modal verbs also have irregular past participle:

For example:

J’ai pu trouver un bon cadeau. – I was able to find a good present.

Sofiane a dû rentrer tôt. – Sofiane had to go home early.

On a voulu essayer le gâteau hier. – We wanted to try the cake yesterday.

Vous avez su suivre la recette ? – Did you know how to follow the recipe?

Now you have revised the important vocabulary and key grammar points for describing family traditions and celebrations, why not try have a look at the Describing entertainment guide?