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 Infinitive | Past Participle | English |
|---|---|---|
| acquérir | acquis | to acquire |
| apprendre | appris | to learn |
| atteindre | atteint | to reach |
| avoir | eu | to have |
| boire | bu | to drink |
| comprendre | compris | to understand |
| conduire | conduit | to drive |
| connaître | connu | to know |
| construire | construit | to construct |
| courir | couru | to run |
| couvrir | couvert | to cover |
| craindre | craint | to fear |
| croire | cru | to believe |
| décevoir | déçu | to disappoint |
| découvrir | découvert | to discover |
| devoir | dû | to have to |
| dire | dit | to say |
| écrire | écrit | to write |
| être | été | to be |
| faire | fait | to do, to make |
| instruire | instruit | to instruct |
| joindre | joint | to join |
| lire | lu | to read |
| mettre | mis | to put |
| mourir * | mort | to die |
| naître * | né | to be born |
| offrir | offert | to offer |
| ouvrir | ouvert | to open |
| paraître | paru | to appear |
| peindre | peint | to paint |
| pouvoir | pu | to be able to |
| prendre | pris | to take |
| produire | produit | to produce |
| recevoir | reçu | to receive |
| savoir | su | to know |
| souffrir | souffert | to suffer |
| suivre | suivi | to follow |
| tenir | tenu | to hold |
| venir * | venu | to come |
| vivre | vécu | to 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?
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