while french verb tenses may seem daunting at first glance they're really not as bad as they seem in this video i'm going to do an overview of the most common verb tenses used in french more specifically when to use them and some patterns of conjugation for each one i'm going to set this video up so that i alter monge in pom in all of the major tenses to give you all a better picture of what each verb tense looks and sounds like so let's start with the most common french verb tense le present as the name suggests this verb tense is usually used to express something that is happening right now in the current moment as you're saying it so our sentence would become which is translated to i'm eating an apple easy enough yes but conjugating verbs in the present tense isn't as straightforward fortunately there are respective patterns for verbs that end with er ir and re knowing these verb endings will help you conjugate most verbs in the present tense correctly however there are unfortunately a lot of irregular verbs that play by their own rules here are some examples and this is just the tip of the iceberg don't worry too much though the conjugations of these verbs will come to you quickly because of how often they are used in everyday spoken and written french at number two a verb tense you'll use all the time le pase composer it's used to describe completed actions of the past a one and done type of action it happened it's done and you've moved on with your life so our sentence becomes je monze in pong which is translated to i ate an apple the way le pase composer is formed is with the subject the avaru etre auxiliary in the present tense and the past participle of your action verb the tricky thing with the passe composer is that some action verbs require the avoir auxiliary while others require the etre auxiliary so how do you know which auxiliary to use the rule of thumb is to always use abuar unless the verb falls within the doctor and mrs van der mnemonic shown here or when the verb is reflexive in other words verbs that have cert in front of it like siblings so how does one conjugate the past participle well with er verbs you drop the er and add an excellent with ir verbs you drop the ir and add an i and with re verbs you drop the re and add a u however there are some irregular verbs and here are a few examples of some common ones at number three we have lamp half fe unlike paseo compose lempafe is used when describing ongoing actions of the past descriptions of the past and it's how you say i was we were i would i used to so it's a very critical tense to know so our sentence would become je monge which translates to i was eating an apple when he called luckily the way to conjugate lamp outfit is pretty simple you take the new form of the verb in the present tense sounds weird i know but stay with me you take off the ons ending to get your stem and then you add the verb endings of the ampalphet to that stem so the verb vandra would look like this the only irregular verb in the ampa fe is etre and the only irregular thing about it is its stem but it still uses the same empath endings as all the other verbs a very useful verb tense is le pasere song which is used to describe an action that just happened moments ago it's super easy to form all it is is veneer conjugated in the present tense plus d and then your action verb in its infinitive aka its unmodified form so our sentence would become javien de montje in palm which is translated to i just ate an apple the please is the last common verb tense of the past and it is used to talk about an event of the past that occurred before another event in the past so our sentence would turn into something like java deja monge which translates to i had already eaten an apple when he arrived so here there are two verbs in the past monge and arive and since monge happens before it is conjugated in le plusca palphe le plisque parfe is conjugated with the avvaru etra auxiliary in the empire and then the past participle of your action verb so now jumping into our future tenses we have le futio pros and le futio sample so le futile approach describes an action that is going to happen really soon so our sentence would turn into jebe monge in pong which translates to i'm going to eat an apple alongside the paseo de son le fito proch is the easiest verb tense to conjugate all it is is ale in the present tense and the infinitive of your action verb [Music] the future sample is how you say i will do something and it looks like je monge which translates to i will eat an apple at school so the difference here is that the action will be done in the future but not necessarily the very near future to form the majority of verbs in leficio sample you simply take the infinitive of the verb its unmodified structure and add the future verb endings [Music] here are a few examples of irregular verbs which have the same endings just different irregular stems so at number eight we have lefty anterior so every textbook defines this tense as a future event that happens before another future event and if you're anything like me you read this definition and you're like what like what do you mean but the meaning becomes clear once you look at some examples so our sentence would become infla which translates to once i have eaten an apple i will feel better so here there are two future actions monge and santir but since monge happens before santir it's conjugated in le fito ontaria this tense is formed by conjugating avoir u etre in le futio sample and then adding le patissi passe of your action verb time for the verb tense mood whatever you want to call it that all french learners dread le sub zhong tief here is one of my favorite memes that perfectly summarizes what it's like to try and learn the subjunctive while many french verb tenses give learners problems the subjunctive is on another level conjugating it is a little strange but manageable the big problem resides in knowing when to use it and when not to use it the subjunctive is used when expressing a wish doubt uncertainty emotion judgment necessity possibility and opinion and the indicator that you might need to use it is the word the confusing part about lesibjeantife is that expressions like ilfoka bienke are all followed by the subjunctive but then other expressions you would think take the subjunctive like jesbelka or ponseike do not instead they take an indicative tense making the entire process of learning lesobjangti very challenging so what does it look like and how do you conjugate it well for most verbs you take the plural ill form of the verb in the present tense cut off the ent ending and then add the subjunctive endings so the verb finier will look like this and here are some very common examples of irregular verbs in the subjunctive present so our sentence could become ill-focused in the subjunctive has the same rules of usage except you conjugate it with the subjunctive present develop and then le peltier si passe of your action verb next up is lemperative present and if you like bossing people around this is the verb tense for you lemperatif is used when giving orders suggestions or advice think of drill sergeants board game instructions and your teacher telling you to stop talking these are all examples of blaine peratti so our sentence could look like which translates to eat your apple it's good for you the unique thing about this tense is that no subject is included as it is implied who you are speaking to by the verb ending and there are only three ways to conjugate lemperative here is the standard pattern of conjugation and here are some common irregulars next we have the conditional present a passe which are used to express something that would happen as long as a specific condition is met and for politeness so our sentence in the condition el president could look like je mongerre in palm cijo nave which translates to i would eat an apple if i had some so there's a condition here right the condition is if i had some in terms of politeness when you're in a restaurant or ordering food in general it is more polite to say je voutre and steak conditioner i would like a steak then je vit and steak i want a steak to conjugate most verbs in the conditioner we use the infinitive form of the verb and add the endings of the conditional which are the exact same as the amp alpha here are a few examples of some common irregular verbs which still have the conditional endings just different irregular stems the condition el pase is conjugated with the conditional present of avoir uetra and then the past participle of your action verb so our sentence could look something like journey which translates to i would have eaten an apple if i had some so last but not least we have legerendiff present so legerondif is a mood used when a second action is being done at the same time as another and it is often translated as while plus the verb or by plus the verb so our sentence in legeron's present could look like which means he was talking while eating an apple or it could look like ammon which means by eating a lot of apples he avoids trips to the doctor and i wouldn't worry too much about legerendi passe it's not super common but an example would be so having eaten an apple i feel better than before so conjugating legerendi is really easy all you do is use all and then you take the stem of your verb and add a and t to the ending again legerendi passe is not super common but if you're curious on how to conjugate it it's on plus le patissi present of avoir and then the past participle of your action verb so there are some very old tenses that are essentially dead in french speech and casual writing and only found in a small amount of literature so i wouldn't even bother looking into these however there is one tense called le pase sample that isn't used in everyday spoken french but is common in modern literature stories books and super common and old french literature as you can see it is very archaic looking and the conjugation is very unique as a learner unless you want to write a book in french you don't need to know how to conjugate this tense but there is some merit to glancing over how some verbs are conjugated in order to be a little more comfortable when reading french stories and literature so that's it all french verb tenses summarized in one video initially it seems like an impossible feat to understand all of these but if you really break down each tense they aren't all that bad the best advice i can give to get better at knowing when to use age verb tense and how to conjugate them on top of reading is to write and no i don't mean fill out conjugation tables that will make you pass out due to boredom or do grammar drills that make watching paint dry sound like fun what i mean is use resources like write streak on reddit or langcorrect.com where you can write about your day your favorite hobbies basically anything you want and get corrections from native french speakers by practicing writing you will actively reflect on what verb tense you should be using and how to conjugate it with time you will get better and better and all the verb tenses and conjugations i skim through in this video will make much more sense and will come to you naturally thank you everyone for watching if this video helped you out please hit that like button and subscribe if you'd like to see future content also no matter your french level feel free to follow me on any of my social media pages for daily vocab memes useful expressions and more