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

3128 Views

See similar French GCSE tutors

Related French GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Using the perfect tense with avoir


What tense is "Ils étaient grands"in?


En un court paragraphe, écrivez un peu sur votre routine scolaire


How can I make my written French sound more fluent/sophisticated?


We're here to help

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