French Verb Endings

The Tenses and Verb Endings

In this lesson, we will go through the different verb endings for the different tenses that can be used in French. The tenses we will go through are:

  1. present tense

  2. imperfect tense

  3. perfect tense

  4. near future tense

  5. simple future tense

  6. present subjunctive tense

  7. conditional tense

The present tense is used when you are describing something that is happening right now.

The imperfect tense is used to describe a previous habit, such as going to work.

The perfect tense can be used to describe something that happened once, or to interrupt the imperfect tense. For example, ‘I was listening to the radio when you called’

The near future tense describes something that will definitely happen and is about to happen.

The simple future tense is used when talking about something that will happen later and is may be less certain.

The present subjunctive tense is to convey uncertainty by the speaker. It’s used to express doubt or desire. This is generally the hardest tense for non-native speakers to learn if it isn’t a tense in their own native language.

The conditional tense is used to talk about things that may or may not happen, and usually depends on an alternate condition being met first.

Although both the subjunctive and conditional are very similar, the key part is that the conditional depends on a prior condition being met, but the subjunctive describes general uncertainty.

This was included just to give a quick overview of the different tenses and when they are used. Next, we will go into the different endings that are used for these tenses depending on how the infinitive of the verb ends. There are 3 ways an infinitive in french can end:

  1. -er

  2. -ir

  3. -re

Each of these can have slightly different endings for each of the tenses. Another important (and slightly annoying) thing to keep in mind is that there are some irregular verbs that are used commonly in French that change a lot with tense. For example:

  1. être (to be)

  2. avoir (to have)

  3. aller (to go)

  4. faire (to do)

These will be included separately in the notes.

Quick Quiz

  1. which tense would you use when you would buy a dog if you had the money?

  2. which tense would you use to say that you used to work remotely during covid?

  3. which tense would you use to say you’re going to the shops for milk?

  4. which tense would you use to say you are going to start jogging regularly?

  5. which tense would you use to say when you take medication?

  6. which tense would you use to tell someone what you are doing right now?

  7. which tense would you use to say that you woke up from a dream?

  8. which tense would you use to say you’re unsure you will be able to visit someone next month?

Verbs Ending in -er

  1. present tense

The example I am going to use throughout this is donner (meaning to give). Firstly, this is it used in the present tense for all forms:

je donne

tu donnes

il donne

nous donnons

vous donnez

ils donnent

With all of these, the -er is dropped and replaced with the highlighted endings.