Why this matters

You've been building your passé composé skills, but you keep running into verbs with past participles that don't follow the rules. Today we tackle them all at once. There are about 30 high-frequency irregular past participles — and once you know them, you'll use them every day. Think of this as equipping your French toolbox with the right tools.

These verbs (faire, prendre, voir, dire, mettre, écrire...) are among the most frequent in the French language, so they appear constantly in DELF A2 listening and reading passages. A shaky memory here can derail comprehension of an otherwise easy text — this reference is worth memorizing cold.

🦝 Remy says: "Irregular past participles don't form a neat pattern, so rote memorization is the only way. But here's the trick — group them by sound. Once you hear the -it, -is, -u patterns, your brain starts to predict them naturally!"

Document Déclencheur

Message, groupe de classe J'ai fait mes devoirs, j'ai pris des notes, mais j'ai lu seulement la moitié du chapitre. Tu as compris le dernier exercice, toi ?

What do you notice?

"fait" (faire), "pris" (prendre), "lu" (lire) — none of these look like the infinitive at all. What does that tell you about irregular past participles? (they must be memorized individually — there's no reliable rule from the infinitive, unlike regular -er/-ir/-re verbs)
"j'ai lu seulement la moitié" — where does "seulement" sit relative to "j'ai lu"? (it slots in right after the auxiliary, in the same position pas would go, even though this isn't negation)
Group "fait" and "pris" by their ending sound — do they rhyme with any pattern Remy mentioned? (fait ends in -ait/-é sound like other irregular participles worth grouping by ear, pris ends in the -is family with mis, appris)

Irregular Past Participles: Grouped by Ending

Group 1: Ending in -U

Group 2: Ending in -IT or -IS

Group 3: Ending in -ERT / -EIN / Other

🦝 Remy's memory trick: "The -U group is the biggest — bU, vU, lU, pU, cU... when in doubt, try -u first! And for faire/dire/écrire, think of the English root: fait = fact, dit = dictate, écrit = script. History of words is secretly helpful!"

Mini-Dialogue: Une soirée mouvementée

— Tu as vu Antoine hier soir ? — Oui ! Il a fait une drôle d'histoire. Il a pris le mauvais bus et il a dû marcher deux kilomètres. — Il t'a écrit pour te le dire ? — Oui, et il a aussi dit qu'il avait couru sous la pluie pendant dix minutes !

— Did you see Antoine last night? — Yes! He had a funny story. He took the wrong bus and had to walk two kilometers. — Did he write to tell you? — Yes, and he also said he'd run in the rain for ten minutes!

Common Mistakes

Regularizing an irregular verb. ❌ J'ai faisé mes devoirs. ✅ J'ai fait mes devoirs. Faire is one of the most common verbs — its participle fait must simply be memorized.
Confusing similar-looking pairs. ❌ Mixing up pris (prendre) and pu (pouvoir) — they sound different but learners sometimes blend them under pressure. Practice pairs like j'ai pris / j'ai pu out loud separately.
Wrong auxiliary with venir-family verbs. ❌ J'ai venu. ✅ Je suis venu(e). Venir, devenir, and revenir take être (they're on the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP list from Day 9) even though their past participle looks similar to other -u verbs.
Forgetting the circumflex on dû. ❌ j'ai du attendre. ✅ j'ai dû attendre. The accent distinguishes the past participle dû (from devoir) from the article du (some/of the).

Recap

Most irregular past participles cluster into three sound groups: -u (largest), -it/-is, and -ert.
Must-know forms: fait, dit, écrit, pris, mis, vu, bu, eu, été, ouvert, dû, pu, voulu.
Venir-family verbs use être as auxiliary, not avoir — don't let the -u ending fool you.
Group verbs by sound patterns to build faster recall.

📝 Exercise 1 — Give the past participle

faire → ___
boire → ___
écrire → ___
prendre → ___
voir → ___
mettre → ___
ouvrir → ___
pouvoir → ___

✅ Answers:

fait
bu
écrit
pris
vu
mis
ouvert
pu

📝 Exercise 2 — Complete in passé composé

Elle ________ (écrire) une lettre ce matin.
Nous ________ (voir) un beau film hier.
Tu ________ (boire) assez d'eau aujourd'hui ?
Il ________ (ouvrir) la porte.
Vous ________ (faire) vos devoirs ?

✅ Answers:

a écrit
avons vu
as bu
a ouvert
avez fait

📝 Exercise 3 — Translate

I wrote an email to my boss. → ___
She learned Spanish last year. → ___
They (m.) took the metro. → ___
He couldn't come. → ___
We discovered a great restaurant. → ___

✅ Answers:

J'ai écrit un email à mon patron.
Elle a appris l'espagnol l'année dernière.
Ils ont pris le métro.
Il n'a pas pu venir.
Nous avons découvert un super restaurant.

📝 Exercise 4 — Matching

Match the infinitive to its past participle.

connaître → ___
vivre → ___
tenir → ___
souffrir → ___
conduire → ___

Options: (a) vécu (b) souffert (c) connu (d) conduit (e) tenu

✅ Answers:

📝 Exercise 5 — Error correction

Fix the mistake in each sentence.

J'ai faisé un gâteau. → ___
Elle a écris une carte postale. → ___
Nous avons pu attendre. wait: Nous avons du attendre. → ___
J'ai venu à la fête. → ___

✅ Answers:

J'ai fait un gâteau.
Elle a écrit une carte postale.
Nous avons dû attendre.
Je suis venu(e) à la fête.

🎯 Today's challenge

Make 10 flashcards (physical or digital) with the irregular verb on one side and its past participle on the other. Test yourself, then come back to the ones you missed. Spaced repetition is the single best way to memorize these — try reviewing them once today and once tomorrow.

⭐ Key takeaways

Most irregular past participles end in -u (the largest group), -it/-is, or -ert.
The must-knows: fait, dit, écrit, pris, mis, vu, bu, eu, été, ouvert, dû, pu.
Group them by sound — your ear will start to predict them after enough exposure.
Watch for venir-family verbs: they use être, not avoir, despite their -u-like participle.