icon-background-square
New
New
Year 8

Switzerland: perfect tense negation

Learning outcomes

I can form negative sentences in the perfect tense and say what I and others did and didn’t do on holiday.

I can recognise and pronounce the SSC [au/eau] and know it is the same sound as the closed [o/ô].

icon-background-square
New
New
Year 8

Switzerland: perfect tense negation

Learning outcomes

I can form negative sentences in the perfect tense and say what I and others did and didn’t do on holiday.

I can recognise and pronounce the SSC [au/eau] and know it is the same sound as the closed [o/ô].

warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. The SSC [au/eau] is in the word 'gauche' which means 'left'.
  2. The SSC [au/eau] is identical to the closed [o/ô] even though they are spelled differently.
  3. To make a sentence mean the opposite, we use negation. One way to do this is to use 'ne … pas' around the main verb.
  4. With two-verb structures like the perfect tense, the 'ne ... pas' surrounds the first verb, the form of 'avoir'.
  5. There is no one-word equivalent for 'didn't' in French. It is expressed by using 'ne ... pas' and the perfect tense.

Keywords

  • Closed [o/ô] - sound-symbol correspondence (SSC) like the [o] in 'photo'

  • [au/eau] - sound-symbol correspondence (SSC) like the [au] in 'gauche'

  • Negation - two words, e.g. 'ne … pas', around the main verb negating meaning

  • Ne … pas - French adverb which fits around the main verb in a sentence to mean 'not'

Common misconception

I have to translate 'didn't' into French.

There is no direct translation for 'didn't' in French. Using 'ne ... pas' with the perfect tense expresses the equivalent of 'didn't' in French.


To help you plan your year 8 french lesson on: Switzerland: perfect tense negation, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

This lesson is built around a holiday in Switzerland. You may wish to go into the culture of this country in more detail with your students.
speech-bubble
Teacher tip
equipment-required

Equipment

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Loading...

Some of our videos, including non-English language videos, do not have captions.

6 Questions

Q1.
Order the months from earliest to latest.
1 - juillet
2 - aout
3 - septembre
4 - octobre
5 - novembre
6 - décembre
Q2.
Match the French and English.
Correct Answer:anniversaire (m),birthday
tick

birthday

Correct Answer:forêt (m),forest
tick

forest

Correct Answer:frontière (f),border
tick

border

Correct Answer:montagne (f),mountain
tick

mountain

Correct Answer:national,national
tick

national

Correct Answer:général,general
tick

general

Q3.
There are only two words in French for 'our' - 'notre' for singular nouns and ' ' for plural nouns.
Correct Answer: nos
Q4.
Match the French and English.
Correct Answer:voyager,to travel, travelling
tick

to travel, travelling

Correct Answer:je voyage,I travel
tick

I travel

Correct Answer:j'ai voyagé,I travelled
tick

I travelled

Correct Answer:je n'ai pas voyagé,I did not travel
tick

I did not travel

Q5.
Write in English: 'mon dernier jour en Suisse'.
Correct Answer: My last day in Switzerland., My final day in Switzerland.
Q6.
Write in French: 'I worked everywhere'.
Correct Answer: J'ai travaillé partout.

6 Questions

Q1.
The sound-symbol correspondence [au/eau] is identical to the closed even though they are spelled differently.
[à]
[é]
[on]
Correct answer: [o/ô]
Q2.
Which words in French include the [au/eau] sound?
everywhere
Correct answer: goodbye
Correct answer: present
Correct answer: new
August
Q3.
Which words are plural?
son
sa
Correct answer: ses
notre
Correct answer: nos
Q4.
Arrange the words to form a negative sentence.
1 - tu
2 - n'
3 - as
4 - pas
5 - cherché
6 - la
7 - frontière
Q5.
'Je joue dans la forêt'. Rewrite the sentence to make it negative.
Correct Answer: Je ne joue pas dans la forêt.
Q6.
Write in French: 'I didn't cross the bridge'.
Correct Answer: Je n'ai pas traversé le pont.

Additional material

Download additional material