Talking about yesterday in French: j'ai parlé and j'ai travaillé

Level A1

Talking about yesterday in French: j'ai parlé and j'ai travaillé

Two colleagues are comparing what they did yesterday. You will report a completed action with two pieces: j'ai or tu as followed by parlé or travaillé. You will also say that the action did not happen; a short map will help you recognize how this past differs from the present and a future plan.

Start with familiar pieces

Je means I; tu means you when speaking to one person you address informally. Avoir means have: J'ai un livre is I have a book, and Tu as un livre is You have a book; un livre means a book, and je becomes j' directly before ai.

Parler means speak: Je parle français means I speak French, with français meaning French; travailler means work, and Je travaille à la maison means I work at home, with à la maison meaning at home. With tu, the present forms are tu parles and tu travailles: their final -s is silent. Je ne travaille pas means I don't work: ne and pas surround travaille, and ne becomes n' before a vowel sound.

Two actions and yesterday

Listen to parler, travailler and hier, meaning speak, work and yesterday. Parler and travailler are infinitives, the forms used to name the actions; in this lesson, hier places a completed action on the day before today. Keep these two actions as your choices throughout the practice.

A completed action: j'ai / tu as + -é

Listen to J'ai parlé hier (I spoke yesterday): ai is the present of avoir, but here it helps build the past instead of saying you possess something. This two-part past is called the passé composé: with these regular -er verbs, replace -er with -é to make the past participle, parler → parlé and travailler → travaillé. Change j'ai to tu as when the subject changes to tu; parlé and travaillé stay the same in these examples.

J'ai travaillé hier means I worked yesterday, and Tu as travaillé hier means You worked yesterday: English uses a simple past here, but French needs both pieces. Keep the final accent in writing: parlé has a final vowel sound, unlike parle, while parler and parlé sound alike. Listen again and switch only the person or the action.

j'ai / tu as + parlé / travaillé + hier

Deny the action: n' + ai / as + pas

Put n' before ai or as and pas after it: Je n'ai pas parlé hier means I didn't speak yesterday, and Tu n'as pas travaillé hier means You didn't work yesterday. The negative surrounds the auxiliary, the first verb piece; the participle comes after pas. Je stays je because n' now comes between it and ai, so write je n'ai, not j'n'ai.

Unlike English didn't speak, French keeps the past participle: n'ai pas parlé, not n'ai pas parler. The same arrangement works with both verbs and both people shown here. In everyday speech you may hear ne or n' omitted, as in the earlier lesson, but practise the complete negative here.

je n'ai pas / tu n'as pas + parlé / travaillé + hier

Recognize the same actions at three times

Read and listen for recognition only: Je parle français means I speak French (present), J'ai parlé français hier means I spoke French yesterday (completed past), and Je vais parler français demain means I'm going to speak French tomorrow (plan). Je vais + infinitive presents a future plan here; demain means tomorrow.

The second group gives Je travaille aujourd'hui (I work today), Hier, j'ai travaillé à la maison (Yesterday I worked at home), and Demain, je vais travailler (Tomorrow I'm going to work). Aujourd'hui means today, and à la maison still means at home. Notice travaille, ai travaillé and vais travailler: the verb arrangement and the time word together give the meaning. You only need to recognize this map; today you are practising the completed past with j'ai and tu as.

Your turn: compare yesterday

Before reading the answers, say four things to a colleague you address as tu: I spoke yesterday; you worked yesterday; I didn't work yesterday; you didn't speak yesterday. Use hier each time, choose ai for yourself or as after tu, and keep parlé or travaillé after the auxiliary.

The examples give the answers in that order. Listen, then say them again without looking; check that the negative puts pas before the participle.

Keep the two pieces together

For the completed actions in this lesson, use j'ai or tu as + parlé or travaillé, with hier meaning yesterday. To deny the action, use je n'ai pas or tu n'as pas before the same participle. Keep the subject, the auxiliary and the final -é: J'ai travaillé hier means I worked yesterday, while Tu n'as pas travaillé hier means You didn't work yesterday. Other people, irregular participles and past forms with être can wait.

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