Sentence practice

Hier, j'ai mangé au restaurant.

/jɛʁ ʒe mɑ̃.ʒe o ʁɛs.to.ʁɑ̃/

Yesterday I ate at a restaurant.

A1neutral

The sentence, word by word

PatternTIME + SUBJ + avoir + PARTICIPLE + PLACE

Hieryesterdaytime — when
j'Isubject
ai mangéone unitate / have eatenverb
auat thepreposition of place
restaurantrestaurantplace — where

The verb — where it comes from

ai mangé←mangerGroup 1 · -er verbs
manger → mang + é → mangé
Mood
indicative
Tense
past (passé composé)
Person
first person singular (je)
Auxiliary
avoir
With
j'
Full conjugation of «manger»

Spelling and sound changes

élision — a vowel dropsje ai → j'ai(je + vowel)
contractionà le restaurant → au restaurant(à + le)

Notes on this sentence

ai mangéavoir + past participle, like English have eaten. But French uses it with yesterday too: hier, j'ai mangé = yesterday I ate. English would never say « yesterday I have eaten ».
Hierhier = yesterday, pronounced /jɛʁ/.

The rules in this sentence

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