Learn French: Vous avez fini votre travail le week-end dernier.

Vous avez fini votre travail le week-end dernier.

You finished your work last weekend.

Breakdown of Vous avez fini votre travail le week-end dernier.

your (formal/plural) (singular and plural forms: votre, vos)

Questions & Answers about Vous avez fini votre travail le week-end dernier.

How is the past tense formed for finir in this sentence?

This is the passé composé (the main past tense in French). It has two parts: the helper verb avoir (here, avez to match Vous) and the past participle. For regular verbs ending in -ir like finir, you simply drop the -r to get the past participle fini.

Doesn't avez fini literally mean "have finished"? Why does the translation just say "finished"?

Yes, literally it means "have finished." However, the French passé composé is used for both "have finished" and the simple past "finished." In English, we usually say "finished" when we specify a past time like "last weekend," so that makes the most natural translation here.

Why do we use votre here instead of vos for "your"?

Even though Vous can refer to multiple people, the choice between votre and vos depends on the thing being owned. Since travail (work) is a singular noun, you use votre. If they had finished multiple tasks or projects, it would be vos.

Why does the word for "last" (dernier) come after week-end?