French Tenses For Beginners (With Examples)

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.

 

Tenses in French are, just like in any other language, inevitable and necessarily.

In this article you’ll find explanations and examples that will make studying easier for you.

French verbs

French verbs are divided into three groups:

• I group are verbs that end with -er, except the verb ‘Aller.’

• II group are verbs that end with -ir.

• III group are irregular verbs that end with -re and -oir as well as the verb ‘Aller.’

What you perhaps already know, tenses in French include past, present, and future.

The French language has ten tenses. However, not all of them are used in everyday conversations. Some are used in certain cases, others can be found only in literature, etc.

To make a bit clearer, let’s start with verb forms or moods and see why they are important.

Verb forms

Verb forms are important to know because every verb form can be used in different tenses.

There are six verb forms. 

 

Indicative

This is a mood for expressing a simple statement or a fact. It’s most often used, mainly in everyday conversations.

Examples: Anne didn’t go to a meeting.

    I am going to discuss the misunderstanding.

The tenses of the indicative mood are:

• The present tense: Présent 

• Simple past tense: Passé simple

• The ‘recent’ past tense: Passé recent

• The past tense or ‘the narrative past tense: Passé composé

• The present subjunctive: Imparfait

• The past subjunctive: Plus que parfait 

• The past perfect tense: Passé antérieur 

• The future tense: Futur simple

• The ‘near’ future tense: Futur proche

• The future perfect tense: Futur Anteriéur

 

Conditional

The conditional mood is used in sentences to express conditions.

Example: Si vous aviez travaillé plus dur, vous auriez réussi l'examen.- If you had worked harder, you would have passed the exam.

Tenses of the conditional are:

• The present tense: Présent 

• First past form or Conditionel 

• Second past form or Conditionel 

Subjunctive

This is the verb form that’s used to express a hypothetical situation, a wish, a demand, or a suggestion.

Examples: Je veux que tu saches – I want you to know

      Je suis content qu'elle ait pu venir.- I'm glad she was able to come.

Subjunctive uses the following tenses:

• The present tense: Présent 

• Simple past tense: Passé simple

• The present subjunctive: Imparfait

• The past subjunctive: Plus que parfait 

Present participle

This form is equivalent to English ‘ing’ forms. It’s  used in situations when two actions happen at the same time and are done by one person.

In French, the ending is -ant.

Examples: Ayant peur, le bébé a pleuré.- Being afraid, the baby cried

      Ma soeur boit du café en conduisant.- Carine eats while driving.

Imperative

This form is used to express a command or instruction, or to make a request. This form tells people what to do.

Examples: Ferme la porte.- Shut the door.

    Range ta chambre- Clean your room.

You can use imperatives in the following forms:

• Present form

• Past form

Infinitive

This is a basic form of verbs. In English, for example, it usually begins with ‘to’ and is followed by the base form of the verb.

Examples: to run, to play, to sit

The infinitive has two forms:

• Present form

Examples:

Manger- to eat; Aller- to go; Prendre- to take.

• Past form

The past form of the infinitive is very rarely used, so stick to the present one.

French tenses

In the previous paragraphs, we talked about form tenses and why forms or moods are important.

Now, it’s time to return to tenses. Let’s dive in.

 

Présent (The present tense)

French present tense used the most is the ‘Présent.’‘ We use this tense to talk about actions that are happening now.

It’s just like the present tense in English.

‘Présent’ can be used for habitual actions. 

Example: Le Mercredi, je travaille.- On Wednesday I work.

The present tense can also be used to express future actions.

Example: Elle arrive bientôt.- She is coming soon.

 

In case you didn’t notice, there is a slight difference in French and English present tenses. 

While in English there is a difference between ‘I work’ and ‘I’m working,’ in French there isn’t. So, the present tense in French is very simple to understand, don’t you think so?

 

Passé simple (The simple past tense)

The ‘Passé simple’ is mainly used in literature. It’s also known as ‘Passé historique.’

It’s used for a completed action that happened in the past.

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). They are different from the ones that are used for irregular verbs.

Examples: Je parlai de ton copain.- I was speaking about your boyfriend.

Il finit son travail.- He finished his work.

 

Passé recent (The ‘recent’ past tense)

With the help of this tense, we can talk about actions that happened in the past but shortly after the moment of speaking.

It’s similar to have+past participle in English.

In French, it’s formed with the verb ‘venir’, the word ‘de’ and the infinitive of the main verb.

The verb venir- to come:

Singular Plural

Je viens Novu venons

Tu viens Vous venez

Il/ Elle vient Ils/ Elles viennent

 

Examples: Je viens de finir le travail.- I have just finished work.

Nous venons de voir Anne pleurer.- We have just seen Anne crying.

 

Passé compose (The narrative past tense)

In other words, this tense is called The Perfect Tense. It’s the most commonly used one, therefore, the most important French past tense. 

It’s equivalent to English past simple or, sometimes, present perfect.

We form this tense with the verbs ‘avoir’ ( to have) and ‘être’ (to be) and past participle.

 

The past participle of regular verbs:

• For verbs of the first group, the verbs that end in -er drop the -er and add -é.

Example: Manger- to eat; mangé

• For verbs of the second group, the verbs that end in -ir, leave the -ir and add -i.

Example: finir- to finish; fini.

    Choisir- to choose; choisi.

• For verbs of the third group, the verbs that end in -re, replace the -re with -u.

Example: attendre- to wait; attendu

       Répondre (to respond; répondu.

 

Let’s sum up:

Le passé compose= the verb ‘avoir’ in the present tense+ past participle.

 

Examples: J'ai déjeuné.- I have eaten breakfast.

Il a fini ses devoirs.- He finished his homework.

The following verbs are irregular, which means that they don’t have regular past participle endings :

• Lire - to read; lu

• Voir- to see; vu

• Boire- to drink; bu

• Croire- to believe; cru

• Pouvoir- to be able to; pu

• Savoir- to know; su

• Devoir- to have to do; dû

• Pleuvoir- to rain plu

• Avoir- to have; eu

• Vouloir- to want; voulu

• Courir- to run; couru

• Connaître- to know; connu

• Recevoir- to receive; reçu

• Venir- to come; venu

• Vivre- to live; vécu

• Prendre- to take; pris

• Apprendre- to learn; appris

• Comprendre- to understand; compris

• Mettre-to put; mis

• Dire- to say; dit

• Écrire- to write; écrit

• Conduire- to drive; conduit 

• Couvrir- to cover; couvert

• Ouvrir- to open; ouvert

• Découvrir- to discover; découvert

• Offrir- to offer; offert 

• Souffrir- to suffer; souffert 

• Faire- to do/make; fait

• Être- to be; été

As we mentioned, passé composé can also be formed with the help of the verb ‘être’ in the present tense and past participle.

In the following lines, you can find verbs that go with the verb ‘être’ to form passé composé . Those are 14 verbs of motion and staying still and they always go with the verb  ‘être.’

• Monter- to go up, ascend; monté

• Rester- to stay; resté

• Sortir- to come out; sorti

• Venir- to come; venu

• Aller- to go; allé

• Naître- to be born; né

• Descendre- o go down, descend; descendu

• Entrer- to enter; entré

• Rentrer- to return; rentré

• Tomber- o fall; tombé

• Retourner- to go back; retourné

• Arriver- to arrive; arrivé

• Mourir- to die; mort

• Partir- to leave; parti

Imparfait (The present subjunctive)

This tense expresses actions that were repeating in the past. It’s also used to tell stories about past events, mainly in literature.

It’s equivalent to the English past tense.

The imparfait is formed with the present tense of the 1st person plural, ‘nous,’ of the verb, and add proper endings (-ais,-ais , ait, -ions, - iez, -aient). 

Examples: Je finissais mes devoirs.- I finished my homework.

Elle dormait chez son amie.- She was sleeping at her friend’s house.

 

Plus que parfait (The past subjunctive)

The plus que parfait is a tense that’s used to express an action that happened before another action in the past.

This tense is usually used with other tenses as imparfait, passé composé or passé simple.

The English equivalent is past perfect tense.

It’s formed with the imperfect forms of the auxiliary verbs ‘avoir’ and ‘être’ and the past participle of the main verb.

Just like with previous tenses we mentioned, the verb ‘être’ is used for reflexive verbs and 14 verbs of motion and staying still, For other verbs, we use the verb ‘avoir.’

Example: Notre fille a eu une très bonne note à son examen d'anglais.- Our daughter got an excellent grade on her English test.

Elle avait beaucoup étudié.- She had studied a lot.

Passé antérieur (The past perfect tense)

Like the simple past tense, this tense is also only used in literature and it’s the equivalent to plus que parfait. It’s used in journalism, historical accounts, and narration. You use it to express an action that happened in the past before some other action from the past, so it’s much likely that you won’t use this tense in everyday conversations.

This tense is formed of the verbs ‘avoir’ and ‘être’ in passé simple as auxiliary verbs and past participles of the main verb. 

The verb ‘avoir’ is used in most verbs. The verb ‘être’ is used with reflexive verbs and 14 verbs of motion or staying. 

Examples: J’eus aimé recontrer Anne- I would have liked to meet Anne.

Vous vous fûtes couchés.- You had gone to bed.

 

Futur simple (The future tense)

This tense is the equivalent to the English future tense.

It’s used to express actions about future plans and intentions, and to make predictions about the things that can happen in the future.

Futur simple is formed by adding the endings to the infinitive of the verbs. Endings are the following:

Singular Plural

• Ai - ons

• As - ez

• A - ont

Examples: Je parlerai anglais- I will speak English.

Elle sera bien vexée- She will be very upset.

Futur proche ( The ‘near’ future tense)

Some called this tense ‘future compossé,’ too. We use it to talk about the future actions that will take place shortly and planned actions in the near future.

The futur proche is formed with the present tense of the verb ‘aller’ and the infinitive on the main verb.

The present tense of the verb ‘aller- to go’ is:

Singular Plural

Je vais Nous allons

Tu vas Vous allez

Il/ Elle/ On va Ils/ Elles vont

 

Examples: Je vais vendre ma maison.- I’m going to sell my house.

Tu vas aimer ça.- You will like that.

 

Futur Anteriéur (The future perfect tense)

The future perfect tense is used as an action that will be completed before a certain point in the future.

It also expresses a prediction about what may have happened in the past.

This tense is similar to English future perfect tense.

Verbs ‘avoir’ and ‘être’ as auxiliary verbs in futur simple tense and past participle for the main verb gives the futur anterieur.

Auxiliary verbs ‘avoir’ and ‘être’ are used for the same main verbs as previous tenses.

Examples: J’aurai aimé être avec toi.- I would like to be with you.

Nous aurons fini pour aujourd'hui.- We are finished for today.

Conclusion

We suppose now you have completely different opinions on French tenses, haven’t you? It’s not as hard as it seemed.

No matter if you mastered these tenses or not, have in mind that nobody, not even native French, will ask you what tense you’re using at that moment. However, they will know if you are using the right one in conversations. So if you make a mistake, don’t worry. French natives will correct you but won’t be offended. That way, you can learn directly from a native.

Which tense do you find the most challenging to learn? And which one is a piece of cake for you? Share your experience in the comments below!