French Verbs – Perfect Tense – Irregular Participles

In this lesson we cover the list of irregular past participles.

What are the irregular past participles in French?

As we saw in the previous lesson, some verbs have irregular past participles, which means they don’t follow the rules that we described.

These therefore have to be learned individually.

The most common are as follows:

French InfinitivePast ParticipleEnglish
acquériracquisto acquire
apprendreappristo learn
atteindreatteintto reach
avoireuto have
boirebuto drink
comprendrecompristo understand
conduireconduitto drive
connaîtreconnuto know
construireconstruitto construct
courircouruto run
couvrircouvertto cover
craindrecraintto fear
croirecruto believe
décevoirdéçuto disappoint
découvrirdécouvertto discover
devoirdûto have to
direditto say
écrireécritto write
êtreététo be
fairefaitto do, to make
instruireinstruitto instruct
joindrejointto join
lireluto read
mettremisto put
mourir *mortto die
naître *néto be born
offriroffertto offer
ouvrirouvertto open
paraîtreparuto appear
peindrepeintto paint
pouvoirputo be able to
prendrepristo take
produireproduitto produce
recevoirreçuto receive
savoirsuto know
souffrirsouffertto suffer
suivresuivito follow
tenirtenuto hold
venir *venuto come
vivrevécuto live

Those marked with an asterisk use être in the formation of the perfect tense.

Quick Quiz – Written Recall

Can you fill in the blanks to complete the verbs we learned?

Test Yourself

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