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

3200 Views

See similar French GCSE tutors

Related French GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Tu aimerais avoir des enfants?


An introduction to Russian cases using nominative and accusative


What is the imperfect tense and how do I conjugate it?


Describe where you live for your blog.


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