What are the most irregular past participles?

Lots of verbs which are irregular when in the past participle can still be grouped together to make them easier to learn! 

Here are a few of the most common irregular past participles. Remember! A past participle is used when forming the perfct tense, the pluperfect tense, or the future perfect tense. It must always have an auxiliary verb before it. 

Acquérir > acquis             (to acquire)

Apprendre > appris         (to learn)

Comprendre > compris (to understand)

Mettre > mis                      (to put)

Prendre > pris                   (to take)

Falloir > fallu                       (to need to)

Voir > vu                              (to see)

Vouloir > voulu                 (to want to)

Avoir > eu                           (to have)

Boire > bu                           (to drink)

Connaître > connu           (to know)

Croire > cru                         (to believe)

Devoir > dû                         (to have to do something)

Lire > lu                                (to read)

Pouvoir > pu                      (to be able to do something)

Savoir > su                          (to know)

Tenir > tenu                       (to hold)

Venir > venu                      (to come)

Vivre > vécu                       (to live)

Recevoir > reçu                                 (to receive)        (watch out for ç! The cedilla here softens the sound to an ‘s’ rather than a ‘k’. In ‘recevoir’ it is the ‘e’ that follows the ‘c’ that softens the sound.)

Couvrir > couvert             (to cover)

Dire > dit                              (to say)

Faire > fait                           (to do)

Joindre > joint                   (to join)

Mourir > mort                   (to die)

Offrir > offert                    (to offer)

Ouvrir > ouvert                 (to open)

Souffrir > souffert           (to suffer)

Etre > été                            (to be)

Naître > né                         (to be born)

Answered by Laura V. French tutor

2690 Views

See similar French GCSE tutors

Related French GCSE answers

All answers ▸

You are writing about your plans to make your town more environmentally friendly.


What are effective ways of improving my level of spoken French?


What is an infinitive?


Vous écrivez un article sur la qualité des collèges en Grande-Bretagne pour un magazine français. Décrivez : • pourquoi votre collège est un bon collège • un événement scolaire mémorable. Ecrivez environ 150 mots en français.


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2024

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy