French Tenses

How to form the stem

Take the infinitve and remove the last 2 letters

The Present Tense

Describes an action happening right now or that happens regularly

Present Tense - ER endings

je -e

tu -es

il/elle -e

nous -ons

vous -ez

ils/elles -ent

Present Tense -IR endings

je -is

tu -is

il/elle -it

nous -issons

vous -issez

ils/elles -issent

Present Tense -RE endings

je -s

tu -s

il/elle - (stem)

nous -ons

vous -ez

ils/elles ent

When one verb follows another in a sentence, only the first verb needs to be in the right form whilst the second is always in the infinitive.

Immediate Future

The present tense form of aller + infinitive

Future Tense endings

je -ai

tu -as

il/elle -a

nous -ons

vous -ez

ils/elles -ont

Future tense irregular stems

aller: ir-

être: ser-

avoir: aur-

faire: fer-

venir: viendr-

vouloir: voudr-

voir: verr-

devoir: devr-

pouvoir: pourr-

recevoir: reccev-

Perfect Tense

About completed actions

a subject + present tense of avoir or etre + past participle

most verbs use avoir

Past participles

er - é

ir - i

er - u

Past participles taking “avoir” only change form if there is a direct object before the verb

Some verbs use être instead

aller partir naitre tomber

venir sortir mourir retourner

revenir descendre devenir entrer

arriver monter rester rentrer

Verbs that take être have to agree with their subject

Irregular past participles

avoir - eu faire - fait

boire - bu lire - lu

connaitre - connu mettre - mis

devoir - dû prendre - pris

écrire - écrit savoir - su

être - été venir - venu

vivre - vécu

Imperfect Tense

Actions that happend in the past or was happening

and what you used to do

Imperfect stem

Find the present tense nous form of the verb and take off the -ons

Imperfect Endings

je -ais

tu - ais

il/elle - ait

nous - ions

vous -iez

ils/elles -aient

The only irregular verb is etre in the imperfect

Its stem is ét-

Imperfect + depuis

had been(for a certain time)

Reflexive verbs

Describe actions that you do to yourself - have a extra part - a pronoun - They all take etre in the perfect tense

Reflexive pronouns

je me

tu te

il se

nous nous

vous vous

ils se

Negative forms

Add ne and pas

-They go either side of the verb

-In the perfect tense they go around the avoir or etre

-To make an infinitive negative put ne pas infront of it

Other forms of negatives

ne…jamais - never

ne…rien - nothing

ne…plus - no more/longer

ne,,,personne - nobody

ne…ni…ni - neither…nor

ne…que - only/nothing but

Article changes after negative

Indefinite and partitive articles usually become de

Conditional - Would,Could and Should

future stem + imperfect endings

Plupefect Tense

Actions that you had done (further in the past)

imperfect version of avoir or etre + past participle