Gap-fill
French A1 gap-fill: the last customer at the bakery
Fill present-tense -er and common verbs in a short story at closing time: fermer, arriver, demander, rester, prendre. Instant checking and a translation.
- A1
- 13 gaps
- Translation included
- Learn this in the A1 notebook →
In short
This story practises the present tense of regular -er verbs (fermer, arriver, regarder, demander, rester) and a few key irregular ones (être, avoir, prendre, faire). The hint gives the infinitive.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
| Pronoun | Ending | fermer |
|---|---|---|
| je | -e | ferme |
| tu | -es | fermes |
| il / elle | -e | ferme |
| nous | -ons | fermons |
| vous | -ez | fermez |
| ils / elles | -ent | ferment |
Le dernier client
Il (être) dix-neuf heures cinquante. La boulangère, Sylvie, (ranger) les plateaux. Elle (fermer) la boutique dans dix minutes.
Un homme (arriver) en courant. Il (regarder) la vitrine presque vide. « Bonsoir ! Il vous (rester) une baguette ? »
Sylvie (chercher) derrière le comptoir. « J'(avoir) une dernière baguette et deux croissants d'aujourd'hui. » L'homme (sourire).
« Je (prendre) tout ! Nous (faire) une surprise à ma fille demain matin. » Sylvie (donner) le sachet et (fermer) enfin la porte.
Read it in English
It's ten to eight. The baker, Sylvie, is putting away the trays. She closes the shop in ten minutes.
A man arrives running. He looks at the almost empty window. "Good evening! Do you have a baguette left?"
Sylvie searches behind the counter. "I've got one last baguette and two of today's croissants." The man smiles.
"I'll take everything! We're making a surprise for my daughter tomorrow morning." Sylvie hands over the bag and finally closes the door.
Which bakery words are irregular in the plural?
- être: il *est · avoir: j'ai · prendre: je prends · faire: nous faisons · sourire: il sourit*
- Il vous reste… ? asks if the shop has any left; it's the polite way to ask at closing time.
- En courant (running) is a present participle: arriver en courant = to arrive at a run.
Most verbs in the story are regular -er verbs, so once you know the endings (-e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent) you can fill them without thinking. Three of the four endings for je, tu, il and ils are silent: ferme, fermes, ferment all sound the same. In writing, the subject tells you which spelling to use.