Irregular past participles
CEFR A1
The regular endings cover most verbs. The verbs you use most often are, as usual, the exceptions — and they must simply be learned.
| Infinitive | Participle | |
|---|---|---|
| avoir | eu | J'ai eu de la fièvre. |
| être | été | J'ai été malade. |
| faire | fait | J'ai fait les courses. |
| prendre | pris | J'ai pris le bus. |
| voir | vu | J'ai vu le médecin. |
| dire | dit | Il a dit non. |
| écrire | écrit | J'ai écrit un message. |
| mettre | mis | J'ai mis mon manteau. |
| lire | lu | J'ai lu l'ordonnance. |
| boire | bu | J'ai bu de l'eau. |
Two patterns make this less arbitrary than it looks: participles in -is (pris, mis) and in -u (eu, vu, lu, bu) come in families, so learning one helps with the next.
être has a past participle (été) and it is entirely regular in use: J'ai été malade — I was ill. Do not confuse this with the verbs that take être as their auxiliary; that is week 11's problem, not today's.
What this unlocks
Knowing the rule is not the same as producing it.
This page explains the pattern. The track drills it: the point arrives inside a mini-dialogue, then production marked against a CEFR descriptor, then a module test that returns you to your two weakest sessions if you miss it.