Sentence Builder: At the Beach

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about what you did and saw at the beach, using the past tense in French.

Asking About Past Activities

French	English
Qu’est-ce que vous avez fait hier / le week-end ?	What did you do yesterday / at the weekend?

Time Expressions

French	English
Hier	Yesterday
Le week-end dernier	Last weekend
La semaine dernière	Last week
L’année dernière	Last year

Saying What You Did

French	English
Nous avons visité…	We visited…
J’ai visité…	I visited…
Il a visité…	He visited…
Elle a visité…	She visited…

Examples:

• J’ai visité la plage. → I visited the beach.
• Nous avons visité la côte. → We visited the coast.
• Il a visité le bord de mer. → He visited the seaside.

Saying What You Saw

French	English
Qu’est-ce que vous avez vu ?	What did you see?
Nous avons vu…	We saw…
J’ai vu…	I saw…
Il a vu…	He saw…
Elle a vu…	She saw…

Examples:

• J’ai vu la mer. → I saw the sea.
• Nous avons vu des coquilles. → We saw some shells.
• Elle a vu une étoile de mer. → She saw a starfish.
• Il a vu un crabe sur les falaises. → He saw a crab on the cliffs.

Grammar Focus: The Perfect Tense (Le Passé Composé)

All of these examples are written in the past tense, specifically the perfect tense (le passé composé).

In French, the perfect tense is made of two parts:

1. The present tense of avoir (to have)
2. The past participle of the main verb

For example:

• J’ai visité → I visited / I have visited
• Elle a vu → She saw / She has seen

You can think of it as similar to the English “I have done,” though in French it often translates as “I did.”

French	English
j’ai vu	I saw / I have seen
elle a vu	she saw
j’ai visité	I visited
nous avons visité	we visited

Note:
Most verbs in French form the perfect tense with avoir, but some use être

Try It Yourself

Using the sentence builder and the vocabulary above, provide the French for the following phrases:

Video

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