Understanding French Verb Tenses

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 manger une pomme 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 présent. 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, je mange une pomme, 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 2, a verb tense you'll use all the time, le passé composé. 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 j'ai mangé une pomme, which is translated to I ate an apple. The way le passé composé is formed is with the subject, the avoir ou être auxiliary in the present tense, and the past participle of your action verb. The tricky thing with the passé composé is that some action verbs require the avoir auxiliary, while others require the être auxiliary. So how do you know which auxiliary to use? The rule of thumb is to always use avoir unless the verb falls within the Dr. and Mrs. Vandertramp mnemonic shown here, or when the verb is reflexive. In other words, verbs that have se in front of it, like se blesser, se laver, se parler. So how does one conjugate the past participle? Well with ER verbs you drop the ER and add an E accent aigu, 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 3 we have l'imperfait. Unlike passé composé, l'imperfait 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 mangeais une pomme quand il a appelé. Which translates to, I was eating an apple when he called. Luckily, the way to conjugate l'imparfait 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 imparfait to that stem. So the verb vendre would look like this. The only irregular verb in the imparfait is être, and the only irregular thing about it is its stem, but it still uses the same imparfait endings as all the other verbs. A very useful verb tense is le passé récent, which is used to describe an action that just happened moments ago. It's super easy to form. All it is is venir, conjugated in the present tense, plus DE, and then your action verb in its infinitive, aka its unmodified form. So our sentence would become, je viens de manger une pomme, which is translated to, I just ate an apple. Le plus que parfait 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, J'avais déjà mangé une pomme quand il est arrivé. Which translates to, I had already eaten an apple when he arrived. So here, there are two verbs in the past, manger and arriver. And since manger happens before, it is conjugated in le plus que parfait. Le plus que parfait is conjugated with the avoir ou être auxiliary in the imparfait, and then the past participle of your action verb. So now jumping into our future tenses, we have So, le futur proche describes an action that is going to happen really soon. So, our sentence would turn into which translates to I'm going to eat an apple. Alongside le passé récent, le futur proche is the easiest verb tense to conjugate. All it is is aller in the present tense and the infinitive of your action verb. Le futur simple is how you say I will do something and it looks like Je mangerai une pomme à l'école. 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 le futur simple, you simply take the infinitive of the verb, its unmodified structure, and add the future verb endings. Here are a few examples of irregular verbs which have the same endings just different irregular steps. So at number eight we have le futur antérieur. 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? What do you mean? But the meaning becomes clear once you look at some examples. So our sentence would become, une fois que j'aurais mangé une pomme. je sentirai mieux which translates to once i have eaten an apple i will feel better so here there are two future actions manger and sentir but since manger happens before sentir it's conjugated in le futur antérieur this tense is formed by conjugating avoir ou etre in le futur simple and then adding le participe passé of your action verb Time for the verb tense, mood, whatever you want to call it that all French learners dread, le subjonctif. Here's one of my favorite memes that perfectly summarizes what it's like to try and learn le subjonctif. While many French verb tenses give learners problems, the Subjonctif 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 Subjonctif is used when expressing a wish, doubt, uncertainty, and the indicator that you might need to use it is the word The confusing part about le subjonctif is that expressions like are all followed by the subjunctive, but then other expressions you would think take the subjunctive, like or do not, instead they take an indicative tense, making the entire process of learning le subjonctif very challenging. So what does it look like and how do you conjugate it? Well for most verbs you take the plural il form of the verb in the present tense, cut off the ent ending, and then add the subjunctive endings. So the verb finir will look like this. And here are some very common examples of irregular verbs in the subjunctive present. So our sentence could become il faut que vous mangez des pommes in the subjunctive présent and the subjunctive passé has the same rules of usage except you conjugate it with le subjonctif présent du verbe avoir ou être and then le participe passé of your action verb. Next up is l'impératif présent, and if you like bossing people around, this is the verb tense for you. L'impératif 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 l'impératif. So our sentence could look like, Mange ta pomme, c'est bon pour la santé. Which translates to, Eat your apple, it's good for you. The unique thing about this tense is that no subject is in the subject. included as it is implied who you are speaking to by the verb ending and there are only three ways to conjugate l'imperatif. Here is the standard pattern of conjugation and here are some common irregulars. Next we have le conditionnel présent et passé which are used to express something that would happen as long as a specific condition is met and for politeness. So our sentence in le conditionnel présent could look like je mangerai une pomme si j'en avais, 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 voudrais un steak, conditionnel, I would like a steak, than je veux un steak, I want a steak. To conjugate most verbs in le conditionnel présent, we use the infinitive form of the verb and add the endings of the conditional which are the exact same as the imparfait. Here are a few examples of some common irregular verbs which still have the conditional endings, just different irregular stems. Le conditionnel passé is conjugated with le conditionnel présent of avoir ou être, and then the past participle of your action verb. So our sentence could look something like this. something like, j'aurais mangé une pomme si j'en avais, which translates to, I would have eaten an apple if I had some. So last but not least, we have le gérondif présent et passé. So le gérondif is the present and the past. 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 le gérondif présent could look like il parlait en mangeant une pomme, which means he was talking while eating an apple, or it could look like en mangeant beaucoup de pommes, il évite les rendez-vous chez le médecin, which means by eating a lot of apples, he omitted the pommes. avoids trips to the doctor. And I wouldn't worry too much about le gérondif passé, it's not super common, but an example would be En ayant mangé une pomme, je me sens mieux qu'avant. So having eaten an apple, I feel better than before. So conjugating le gérondif présent is really easy. All you do is use EN and then you take the stem of your verb and add ENT to the ending. Again, le gérondif passé is not super common but if you're curious on how to conjugate it it's en plus le participe présent of avoir ou être 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 passé simple that isn't used in everyday spoken French but is common in modern literature, stories, books, and super common in 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 each 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 writestreak on reddit, or landcorrect.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!

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, je mange une pomme, 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 2, a verb tense you'll use all the time, le passé composé. 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 j'ai mangé une pomme, which is translated to I ate an apple. The way le passé composé is formed is with the subject, the avoir ou être auxiliary in the present tense, and the past participle of your action verb. The tricky thing with the passé composé is that some action verbs require the avoir auxiliary, while others require the être auxiliary.

So how do you know which auxiliary to use? The rule of thumb is to always use avoir unless the verb falls within the Dr. and Mrs. Vandertramp mnemonic shown here, or when the verb is reflexive. In other words, verbs that have se in front of it, like se blesser, se laver, se parler. So how does one conjugate the past participle?

Well with ER verbs you drop the ER and add an E accent aigu, 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 3 we have l'imperfait. Unlike passé composé, l'imperfait 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 mangeais une pomme quand il a appelé.

Which translates to, I was eating an apple when he called. Luckily, the way to conjugate l'imparfait 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 imparfait to that stem. So the verb vendre would look like this.

The only irregular verb in the imparfait is être, and the only irregular thing about it is its stem, but it still uses the same imparfait endings as all the other verbs. A very useful verb tense is le passé récent, which is used to describe an action that just happened moments ago. It's super easy to form. All it is is venir, conjugated in the present tense, plus DE, and then your action verb in its infinitive, aka its unmodified form.

So our sentence would become, je viens de manger une pomme, which is translated to, I just ate an apple. Le plus que parfait 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, J'avais déjà mangé une pomme quand il est arrivé.

Which translates to, I had already eaten an apple when he arrived. So here, there are two verbs in the past, manger and arriver. And since manger happens before, it is conjugated in le plus que parfait.

Le plus que parfait is conjugated with the avoir ou être auxiliary in the imparfait, and then the past participle of your action verb. So now jumping into our future tenses, we have So, le futur proche describes an action that is going to happen really soon. So, our sentence would turn into which translates to I'm going to eat an apple.

Alongside le passé récent, le futur proche is the easiest verb tense to conjugate. All it is is aller in the present tense and the infinitive of your action verb. Le futur simple is how you say I will do something and it looks like Je mangerai une pomme à l'école.

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 le futur simple, you simply take the infinitive of the verb, its unmodified structure, and add the future verb endings. Here are a few examples of irregular verbs which have the same endings just different irregular steps.

So at number eight we have le futur antérieur. 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? What do you mean? But the meaning becomes clear once you look at some examples.

So our sentence would become, une fois que j'aurais mangé une pomme. je sentirai mieux which translates to once i have eaten an apple i will feel better so here there are two future actions manger and sentir but since manger happens before sentir it's conjugated in le futur antérieur this tense is formed by conjugating avoir ou etre in le futur simple and then adding le participe passé of your action verb Time for the verb tense, mood, whatever you want to call it that all French learners dread, le subjonctif. Here's one of my favorite memes that perfectly summarizes what it's like to try and learn le subjonctif. While many French verb tenses give learners problems, the Subjonctif 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 Subjonctif is used when expressing a wish, doubt, uncertainty, and the indicator that you might need to use it is the word The confusing part about le subjonctif is that expressions like are all followed by the subjunctive, but then other expressions you would think take the subjunctive, like or do not, instead they take an indicative tense, making the entire process of learning le subjonctif very challenging. So what does it look like and how do you conjugate it? Well for most verbs you take the plural il form of the verb in the present tense, cut off the ent ending, and then add the subjunctive endings.

So the verb finir will look like this. And here are some very common examples of irregular verbs in the subjunctive present. So our sentence could become il faut que vous mangez des pommes in the subjunctive présent and the subjunctive passé has the same rules of usage except you conjugate it with le subjonctif présent du verbe avoir ou être and then le participe passé of your action verb.

Next up is l'impératif présent, and if you like bossing people around, this is the verb tense for you. L'impératif 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 l'impératif. So our sentence could look like, Mange ta pomme, c'est bon pour la santé. Which translates to, Eat your apple, it's good for you. The unique thing about this tense is that no subject is in the subject. included as it is implied who you are speaking to by the verb ending and there are only three ways to conjugate l'imperatif.

Here is the standard pattern of conjugation and here are some common irregulars. Next we have le conditionnel présent et passé which are used to express something that would happen as long as a specific condition is met and for politeness. So our sentence in le conditionnel présent could look like je mangerai une pomme si j'en avais, 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 voudrais un steak, conditionnel, I would like a steak, than je veux un steak, I want a steak.

To conjugate most verbs in le conditionnel présent, we use the infinitive form of the verb and add the endings of the conditional which are the exact same as the imparfait. Here are a few examples of some common irregular verbs which still have the conditional endings, just different irregular stems. Le conditionnel passé is conjugated with le conditionnel présent of avoir ou être, and then the past participle of your action verb. So our sentence could look something like this. something like, j'aurais mangé une pomme si j'en avais, which translates to, I would have eaten an apple if I had some.

So last but not least, we have le gérondif présent et passé. So le gérondif is the present and the past. 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 le gérondif présent could look like il parlait en mangeant une pomme, which means he was talking while eating an apple, or it could look like en mangeant beaucoup de pommes, il évite les rendez-vous chez le médecin, which means by eating a lot of apples, he omitted the pommes.

avoids trips to the doctor. And I wouldn't worry too much about le gérondif passé, it's not super common, but an example would be En ayant mangé une pomme, je me sens mieux qu'avant. So having eaten an apple, I feel better than before.

So conjugating le gérondif présent is really easy. All you do is use EN and then you take the stem of your verb and add ENT to the ending. Again, le gérondif passé is not super common but if you're curious on how to conjugate it it's en plus le participe présent of avoir ou être 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 passé simple that isn't used in everyday spoken French but is common in modern literature, stories, books, and super common in 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 each 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 writestreak on reddit, or landcorrect.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!

Transcript for:Understanding French Verb Tenses

Transcript for:
Understanding French Verb Tenses