Gap-fill
Casser or tomber en panne: a French gap-fill about a difficult morning
A cup breaks, a lift stops and a car breaks down. Complete eight gaps to practise casser, cassé and en panne, with pictures, a reference table and translation.
- A2
- 8 gaps
- Translation included
- Learn this in the A2 notebook →
In short
Casser means to break something; tomber en panne means to break down. After the event, an object can be cassé and a machine can be en panne. Compare J’ai cassé une tasse with La voiture est tombée en panne.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
| What happens | State afterwards | English |
|---|---|---|
| J’ai cassé un verre. | Le verre est cassé. | I broke a glass. / The glass is broken. |
| La tasse s’est cassée. | La tasse est cassée. | The cup broke. / The cup is broken. |
| La voiture est tombée en panne. | La voiture est en panne. | The car broke down. / The car is not working. |
Fill each gap with the word or expression in brackets, in the form the sentence needs. The story uses the past tense for events and the present for current states. Watch the feminine endings with tasse, poignée and voiture.
Une matinée difficile
Ce matin, j’ai (casser) une tasse en la faisant tomber. Maintenant, la tasse est (cassé, accord). Je prends une autre tasse et je prépare mon café.
Je veux descendre avec ma valise, mais l’ascenseur est (out of order). Je prends donc les escaliers. En bas, je remarque que la poignée de ma valise est (cassé, accord). Je porte la valise à deux mains.
Devant l’immeuble, une voisine attend près de sa voiture. « Ma voiture est (tomber, participe passé) en panne hier », explique-t-elle. Sa voiture est encore (not working) aujourd’hui, alors nous prenons le bus ensemble.
Pendant le trajet, je regarde mon téléphone. L’écran est (cracked), mais le téléphone (fonctionner, présent) encore. Je peux appeler mon collègue pour le prévenir de mon retard.
Read it in English
This morning I broke a cup by dropping it. Now the cup is broken. I take another cup and make my coffee.
I want to go downstairs with my suitcase, but the lift is out of order. So I take the stairs. At the bottom, I notice that the suitcase handle is broken. I carry the suitcase with both hands.
Outside the building, a neighbour is waiting beside her car. “My car broke down yesterday,” she explains. Her car is still not working today, so we take the bus together.
During the journey I look at my phone. The screen is cracked, but the phone still works. I can call my colleague to let him know I’ll be late.
Four objects from the morning
Find:
How do you say a phone is broken in French?
Mon téléphone est cassé : il ne s’allume plus.
My phone is broken: it won’t switch on any more.
In everyday speech, cassé also describes equipment that has stopped working. En panne focuses on the loss of function. A precise detail helps: l’écran est fissuré describes the screen; il ne s’allume plus describes what the phone does.