Question 1

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

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 2

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

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 3

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

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 4

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

Accepted Answer

In French, most adjectives go after the noun they describe. When dernier (last) and prochain (next) are used with units of time (like week, weekend, or month) to say when something happened, they always go after the noun: le week-end dernier.

Question 5

Why do we need le before week-end dernier? In English we just say "last weekend".

Accepted Answer

French loves its articles! When talking about specific times in the past like "last weekend", "last week", or "last month", French requires the definite article (le or la). So you literally say "the weekend last".

Vous avez fini votre travail le week-end dernier.

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