How to speak about events in the past – DALF C1 French oral exam tips

During your DALF C1 French oral exam, it may be a common practice or expectation to describe an event or a situation that happened in the past. In other words, you may have been asked to provide a response to a question that tests your understanding of multiple past French verb tenses. For example, you are describing a time when you had to travel by car instead of a bicycle.

A possible discussion during your DALF C1 French oral exam regarding the environment may be something similar to the following:

“I drove my car to the appointment yesterday because the lawyer’s office was 10 kilometers away from my house and at that time it was not practical to use my bicycle.”

J’ai pris ma voiture pour me rendre au rendez-vous hier, car le bureau de l’avocat se trouve à 10 kilomètres de chez moi et il n’était pas pratique d’utiliser mon vélo à ce moment-là.

Read the following list of terms that can be used to describe events that happened in the past. For each term, create two sentences that can be used to describe a time when you:

tried a new food
learned a new skill
made a mistake
visited a different town or city

Passé
Autrefois
Par le passé
Dans ce temps-là
Dans le temps
À cette époque-là
À ce moment-là
Hier/Avant-hier
Il y a/Ça fait
La semaine dernière/passée (le mois, l’année

(anglais)

Past
Formerly
In the past
In that time
In the past
At that time
At that time
Yesterday/the day before yesterday
ago/that day
Last week/past (month, year)

Remember to update your personal learning plan to include this exercise and to practice developing sentences that are related to more than one DALF C1 French exam topics.