Unit 2 - School, community and narrating the past
Unit 2: school, community and the past
Unit 2 moves from self to school life, relationships and community. You need vocabulary for subjects, timetables, rules, opinions and comparisons, and the grammar to narrate what happened. The central contrast is passé composé versus imparfait. Passé composé marks a completed event (j'ai fini, je suis allé). Imparfait marks description, background or habit (c'était, il y avait, je faisais). Most questions test whether you can choose between them inside a narrative.
Concepts and traps
Learn auxiliary choice: avoir for most verbs, être for the Dr and Mrs Vandertramp set and all reflexives. With être, the past participle agrees with the subject (elle est allée). With avoir, it agrees only with a preceding direct object (les lettres que j'ai écrites). Object pronouns y and en are tested: y replaces à + place or thing, en replaces de + noun or a quantity. Relative pronouns qui (subject) and que (object) are frequent. Comparatives: plus/moins/aussi + adjective + que; meilleur versus mieux. Traps: depuis takes the present in French (J'habite ici depuis deux ans), not the perfect; il y a can mean ago; on often means we and takes third-person singular. In cultural comparison questions, avoid stereotypes and support claims with evidence.
Worked example
Prompt: narrate a school day using both past tenses.
Model: Hier, il pleuvait et j'étais fatigué. Je suis allé au lycée à huit heures, puis j'ai suivi un cours de français.
Rule: set the scene with imparfait, then use passé composé for each completed action. Check agreement on être verbs.