Gap-fill story · A2 · passé composé
Un dimanche au marché: a passé composé gap-fill story
A short story with ten verbs to put in the passé composé. Watch for the verbs that take être, and for Léa: she is the one doing the actions.
- A2
- 10 gaps
- About 8 minutes
- Translation included
- Learn this in the A2 notebook →
Un dimanche au marché
Dimanche dernier, Léa (se lever) tôt. Elle (prendre) son vélo et elle (aller) au marché du quartier. Il faisait beau et il y avait beaucoup de monde.
D’abord, elle (acheter) des tomates et des fraises. Ensuite, elle (rencontrer) son voisin Karim. Ils (boire) un café ensemble sur la place, et Karim lui (raconter) son voyage au Maroc.
Vers midi, Léa (rentrer) chez elle. Elle (préparer) une salade de tomates et, l’après-midi, elle (faire) une tarte aux fraises pour sa grand-mère.
Read the story in English
Last Sunday, Léa got up early. She took her bike and went to the local market. The weather was nice and there were lots of people.
First, she bought tomatoes and strawberries. Then she met her neighbour Karim. They had a coffee together on the square, and Karim told her about his trip to Morocco.
Around midday, Léa went home. She made a tomato salad and, in the afternoon, she made a strawberry tart for her grandmother.
Why these forms
Three things the story tests
Être verbs agree with Léa. Aller and rentrer describe movement and take être, and every reflexive verb such as se lever does too. With être the participle agrees with the subject, so Léa gets an extra -e: elle est allée, elle est rentrée, elle s’est levée.
Some participles are irregular. Prendre → pris, boire → bu, faire → fait. They don’t follow the -é pattern, so they are worth learning one by one.
The background stays in the imparfait. The story gives you il faisait beau and il y avait beaucoup de monde. They describe the scene, while the gaps are the things Léa did, one after another.
Original story written for this page. Both s’est levée and s'est levée are accepted; accents count.