Le passé compose= the verb ‘avoir’ in the present tense+ past participle.Įxamples: J'ai déjeuné.- I have eaten breakfast.
We form this tense with the verbs ‘avoir’ ( to have) and ‘être’ (to be) and past participle.įor verbs of the first group, the verbs that end in -er drop the -er and add -é.įor verbs of the second group, the verbs that end in -ir, leave the -ir and add -i.įor verbs of the third group, the verbs that end in -re, replace the -re with -u. It’s equivalent to English past simple or, sometimes, present perfect. It’s the most commonly used one, therefore, the most important French past tense. In other words, this tense is called The Perfect Tense. Nous venons de voir Anne pleurer.- We have just seen Anne crying. In French, it’s formed with the verb ‘venir’, the word ‘de’ and the infinitive of the main verb.Įxamples: Je viens de finir le travail.- I have just finished work. It’s similar to have+past participle in English. With the help of this tense, we can talk about actions that happened in the past but shortly after the moment of speaking. Il finit son travail.- He finished his work. They are different from the ones that are used for irregular verbs.Įxamples: Je parlai de ton copain.- I was speaking about your boyfriend. It’s formed by removing the verbs endings and adding the endings for ‘passé simple.’ There are different endings for regular verbs that end in -er ( -ai,-as-a, -Âmes, -Âtes, -èrent) and those that end in -ir or -re (-is, -is, -t, -îmes, -îtes, -irent). It’s used for a completed action that happened in the past. The ‘Passé simple’ is mainly used in literature. So, the present tense in French is very simple to understand, don’t you think so? While in English there is a difference between ‘I work’ and ‘I’m working,’ in French there isn’t. In case you didn’t notice, there is a slight difference in French and English present tenses. The present tense can also be used to express future actions.Įxample: Elle arrive bientôt.- She is coming soon. ‘Présent’ can be used for habitual actions.Įxample: Le Mercredi, je travaille.- On Wednesday I work. It’s just like the present tense in English. Let’s dive in.įrench present tense used the most is the ‘Présent.’‘ We use this tense to talk about actions that are happening now. In the previous paragraphs, we talked about form tenses and why forms or moods are important. The past form of the infinitive is very rarely used, so stick to the present one. Manger- to eat Aller- to go Prendre- to take. In English, for example, it usually begins with ‘to’ and is followed by the base form of the verb. You can use imperatives in the following forms: This form tells people what to do.Įxamples: Ferme la porte.- Shut the door. This form is used to express a command or instruction, or to make a request. Ma soeur boit du café en conduisant.- Carine eats while driving. It’s used in situations when two actions happen at the same time and are done by one person.Įxamples: Ayant peur, le bébé a pleuré.- Being afraid, the baby cried This form is equivalent to English ‘ing’ forms. Je suis content qu'elle ait pu venir.- I'm glad she was able to come. This is the verb form that’s used to express a hypothetical situation, a wish, a demand, or a suggestion.Įxamples: Je veux que tu saches – I want you to know
#Plus que parfait french examples plus
The conditional mood is used in sentences to express conditions.Įxample: Si vous aviez travaillé plus dur, vous auriez réussi l'examen.- If you had worked harder, you would have passed the exam. The future perfect tense: Futur Anteriéur The past tense or ‘the narrative past tense: Passé composé I am going to discuss the misunderstanding. It’s most often used, mainly in everyday conversations. This is a mood for expressing a simple statement or a fact. Verb forms are important to know because every verb form can be used in different tenses. To make a bit clearer, let’s start with verb forms or moods and see why they are important. Some are used in certain cases, others can be found only in literature, etc. However, not all of them are used in everyday conversations. What you perhaps already know, tenses in French include past, present, and future. III group are irregular verbs that end with -re and -oir as well as the verb ‘Aller.’ I group are verbs that end with -er, except the verb ‘Aller.’ French verbsįrench verbs are divided into three groups: In this article you’ll find explanations and examples that will make studying easier for you. Tenses in French are, just like in any other language, inevitable and necessarily. French learners say that French tenses are very challenging, some even say that it’s almost impossible to learn all of them, let alone use them successfully.