French Tenses GCSE

present regular 'er' endings (porter)

e, es, e ons, ez, ent

present regular 'ir' endings (finir)

is, is, it, issons, issez, issent

present regular 're' endings (vendre)

s, s, nothing for il/elle/on, ons (same as er), ez (same as er), ent (same as er)

perfect tense avoir past participle endings for regular er, ir and re verbs

é, i, u

you (nous) had

nous avons eu

you wanted

tu as voulu

I have been

j'ai été

I understood

j'ai compris

you (vous) said

vous avez dit

I had to

j'ai dû

they (masc.) read/ drank/ took

ils ont lu/ bu/ pris

how to form imperfect tense?

take present 'nous' form of verb, minus the present 'nous' ending and add the imperfect ending

when is the imperfect tense used?

to describe something that has happened over period of time, to describe what something was like, or to describe ongoing actions that were interrupted (I was....ing)

only irregular verb in imperfect?

être - ét(ais)

endings for irregular past? (these are the same endings as for conditional tense!)

ais, ais, ait, ions, iez, aient

we (nous) used to be

nous étions

you (vous) used to wear

vous portiez

she used to dance

elle dansait

when do we use the near future tense?

when referring to an event in the near future with a high level of certainty (tomorrow, next week etc)

how to form near future tense?

add infinitive verb to present tense conjugation of aller (je vais, tu vas, il/elle/on va, nous allons, vous allez, ils/elles vont)

when do we use the simple future tense?

for talking about future projects/predictions

how do we form simple future tense? what are the verb endings?

take future stem (usually infinitive besides irregulars) and add the endings:

ai, as, a, ont (for ils/elles) (NOTE: these are the same as avoir conjugation in present tense)

ons, ez, (NOTE: these are the same as the present tense 'er' verb endings!)

what to we do to 're' verbs in the simple future tense?

take of the 'e' (e.g vendre becomes je vendrai)

I will have (irregular future stem (use for conditional and simple future))

je aurai

I will go (irregular future stem (use for conditional and simple future))

je irai

I would see (irregular future stem (use for conditional and simple future))

je verrais

I will be (irregular future stem (use for conditional and simple future))

je serai

I will be able to (irregular future stem (use for conditional and simple future))

hint: from pouvoir (to be able to)

je pourrai

she will know (fact)

(irregular future stem (use for conditional and simple future))

elle saura

they will have to (irregular future stem (use for conditional and simple future))

hint: from devoir

ils devront

We (nous) will do (irregular future stem (use for conditional and simple future))

nous ferons

when do we use the conditional tense?

to say what would happen in the future

how do we form the conditional tense?

take the future stem of the verb and add the following endings (HINT: same as imperfect endings!)

ais, ais, ait, ions, iez, aient