Before you get acquainted with the conjugations of various verbs, let's talk about the tense system in French. It is worth warning that it is a little more complicated than in Russian, but do not be afraid: a methodical study of the theory will not let you get confused!
Here are some important facts. Firstly, in the French language there are three tenses: present, past and future, but there are many more tense forms. Secondly, tenses in French are divided into simple and complex. Simple tenses are formed without an auxiliary verb, complex tenses, on the contrary, with the help of an auxiliary verb. There are only four auxiliary verbs: avoir (to have), être (to be), aller (to go) and venir (to come, to happen).
To choose the correct form for a verb, you also need to know its mood. The mood shows the attitude of the action to reality: whether it is real or depends on some conditions. There are four moods in total. Let's look at each of them.
Indicative mood - Indicatif
Verbs in this mood denote real action. This action actually happened, is happening, or will actually happen. The main times of this time are given in the table:
| Past tense | Present tense | Future |
|---|---|---|
| Passé composition Imparfait Passé simple Passé immediat Plus-que-parfait Passé anterieur |
Present Present progressif |
Future simple Futur antherieur Futur immediat |
Present- simple tense, which denotes action in the present tense. This tense can also be used instead of the past tense. In this case, the use of the present tense is considered a stylistic device that makes the text more picturesque.
Present progressif– the tense is complex and expresses the action taking place at the moment. Very often it is replaced Present.
As for past tenses, only three are used in colloquial speech: passé compose (past perfect), imparfait (past imperfect) and plus-que-parfait (pre-past).
Passé composition And plus-que-parfait are complex tenses, they are formed using the auxiliary verbs avoir or être and the desired participle. Both tenses are translated into Russian by a verb with the past tense.
Imparfait- this is a simple time. The remaining two are past tenses, passé simple And passé anterieur, are used only in written speech.
Passé simple is a simple tense, and Passé antérieur is a complex tense (it is formed using the auxiliary verb in passé simple and a participle).
Passé immediat or in other words, passé récent is the past tense, which denotes an action that happened recently, just now.
All past tenses in French can be translated into Russian using verbs in the past tense.
From future tenses, in colloquial speech from future tenses only future simple, just time. Futur antherieur- the tense is complex and is used in written language.
Imperative mood - Imperatif
Verbs in this mood denote an order, advice, or request. There are only two tenses used in this mood:
| Past tense | Present tense | Future |
|---|---|---|
| Passé | Present | — |
Subjunctive mood - Subjunctive
This mood denotes a possible or desired action or assumption. Simple tense forms in this mood are: présent du Subjonctif and imparfait du Subjonctif, complex: passé du Subjonctif and plus-que-parfait du Subjonctif. Of these forms, only two are used in real French: présent du Subjonctif and passé du Subjonctif.
Conditional mood - Conditionnel
This mood denotes an action that is desirable or possible under certain conditions (in Russian these are sentences with the particle “would”). In this mood the forms Conditionnel présent and Conditionnel passé are used.
In addition to the indicated forms, non-finite forms of the verb are distinguished: infinitive (infinitif présent, infinitif passé), participles (participe présent, participe passé), gerund / gerund (gérondif).
We will look at each of the tenses listed above in more detail in subsequent lessons, but for now check the material you have learned on the questions from the exercise.
Lesson assignments
Exercise 1. Answer the questions:
1. How many moods are there in French?
2. How many tense forms are used in the indicative mood?
3. What tense can be used instead of the past to give expressiveness to the text?
4. What is a complex tense form?
5. How many tense forms are used to indicate the past tense in the indicative mood?
Answer 1.
1. Four inclinations.
2. Eleven species-temporal forms.
3. Present.
4. A complex tense form is formed using two verbs: auxiliary and main.
5. Six: Passé compose, Imparfait, Passé simple, Passé immédiat, Plus-que-parfait, Passé antérieur.
After studying the forms of the present tense, you can safely move on! And in this lesson we will take a small step back - i.e. into the past, and learn how to talk about events that have already happened.
Using Passé composition
Let us remind you that passé composition used in colloquial speech and correspondence, and also common in the press.
Passé composition used to express a completed, perfect action, the result of which is visible in the present. Most often, the verb in this form answers the question “what did you do?” If the verb answers the question “what did you do?”, then the sentence must indicate the time the action was performed. Also remember that these are difficult times.
Verbs are needed to form this form etre or avoir in the present tense and participe passé(past participle).
Formation of past participles
Before you know what verbs it's used with etre, and with which ones - avoir, Let's figure out how the past participle is formed. It's not all that complicated. The participle of a verb is formed by adding a specific ending to its stem.
Participe passé of verbs of group I have an ending -e:
habiter - habité, parler - parlé.
Participe passé of verbs of group II ends with -i:
grandir - grandi, choisir - chosi.
Participe passé of verbs of group III, as you might have guessed, have different endings. They need to be memorized and checked with tables. For example: vouloir – voulu
Verbs of the third group have typical endings that will help you remember the formation of the participle form:
1) Verbs aller, être, naître are likened to the verbs of the first group and receive the ending «é»:
allé, né, été.
2) Verbs to -tir, -mir get cum -i: partir - parti.
3) Verbs prendre, mettre and similar verbs receive an ending -is: prendre – pris, permettre – permis
4) Verbs ecrire, faire, dire have shapes écrit, fait, dire dit respectively
5) Verbs to -frir, -vrir get cum rt: offrir – offert
The most common ending for participles of verbs of the third group is the ending -u: lire – lu, voir – vu.
Education Passé composé
Let's look at a few examples of education passé composition with verbs from different groups.
| Parler - talk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| je | ai parlé | nous | avons parlé |
| tu | as parlé | vous | avez parlé |
| il, elle | a parlé | ils, elles | ont parlé |
| finir – to complete | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| je | ai fini | nous | avons fini |
| tu | as fine | vous | avez fini |
| il, elle | a fini | ils, elles | ont fini |
| voir – to see | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| je | ai vu | nous | avons vu |
| tu | as vu | vous | avez vu |
| il, elle | a vu | ils, elles | ont vu |
The most important thing is not to forget the verb conjugation avoir in present time. The second important point: know which verb requires an auxiliary verb avoir, and what - être.
So, with the verb être form passé composition form:
all reflexive verbs (we will talk about them separately in one of the following lessons);
some verbs of movement and change of state:
enterr- enter
sortir- go out
aller- go
venir- come (from somewhere)
arrive- come (somewhere)
partir- leave
revenir- return
renter- return
rester– stay
devenir- become
monter– rise
descendre- go down
naître- to be born
mourir- die
tomber- fell
passer– pass (through)
Accordingly, the verb avoir required for all other verbs.
An important feature of verbs forming passé composition with verb etre- This means that the past participles agree with the subject in gender, number and case. For example:
| venir | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| je | suis venu(e) | nous | sommes venu(e)s |
| tu | es venu(e) | vous | êtes venu(e)(s) |
| il, elle | est venu(e) | ils, elles | sont venu(e)s |
As you can see, the ending "s" indicates the plural, and the vowel "e"- into the feminine gender.
With verb avoir You don’t need to agree on anything!
Lesson assignments
Exercise 1. Classify the verbs into those that form the passé composé form with the verbs avoir and être.
Être, parler, partir, grandir, venir, boir, sortir, pouvoir, avoir, dire, passer, comprendre, tomber
Exercise 2. Conjugate the verbs. Don't forget about participle agreement if the auxiliary verb is être.
Partir, habiter, rester, grossir, dire
Answer 1.
avoir: parler, grandir, boir, pouvoir, avoir, dire, comprendre
être: partir, venir, sortir, passer, tomber
When studying French, we encounter difficulties in forming tense verbs. However, it is also important to understand their use. Let's figure it out.
The simplest tense in French is Indicatif Présent Actif. It is used:
When an action is performed at the moment of speaking - J'ecris mon article.
. when it comes to truly established facts - La Terre est ronde.
. to express everyday actions - Ma mère cuisine pour mon père.
. to express the future tense, when the action is no longer questioned - Je pars demain.
. to express an action in the past - in colloquial speech, when the story is lively and relaxed - Et je prends mon frère et je vais chez mon ami...
Things are more difficult with past tenses, which have no analogue in the Russian language. When studying the group of past tenses in French, you should distinguish and clearly understand the difference between Passé Composé and Imparfait:
French verb tenses - Imparfait:
- expresses a past unfinished action. The action is unlimited by any time frame. - Je travaillais beaucoup.
- The action is incomplete. - Je pensais beaucoup. I thought a lot.
Passé Composé:
- action in the past is limited in time (markers such as tout le jour, pendant six heures, etc. are often used) - J’ai travaillé tout le jour.
- The action is complete. - J'ai acheté le cadeau.
These are the main differences between Passé Composé and Imparfait. In addition, Imparfait is used in the following cases:
- When an action describes a state in the past - J’étais content de te voir.
- When a repeated action is described - J’allais à l’ecole chaque jour.
However, we should not forget about controversial cases where you can make a mistake. So, for example, with the marker “souvent” we will use Passé Composé, since “often” implies a limited number of times. And with “hier” Imparfait can also be used depending on the context:
Quand j"étais jeune, j'ai souvent fait du sport.
Hier il faisait froid.
Hier j'ai acheté mon cadeau.
French verb tenses. Plus-que-parfait also belongs to the group of past tenses in French. This tense expresses an action that precedes an action in the past.
Il a lu trois pages et compris qu’il n’avait pas fait attention à ce qu’il lisait.
Passé and Futur Immédiat express an action that has just been done or that will be done in the very near future.
Passé Immédiat: Je viens d'arriver. - I just came.
Futur Immédiat: Je vais sortir maintenant. - I'm leaving now.
Futur Simple expresses an action similar to the future tense of the Russian language.
Je partirai pour me vacances le 9 juin.
There is also another past tense, Passé Simple, which, however, is rarely used in modern language. This tense describes actions from the distant past and is often found in fiction.
French verb tenses. Formation of temporary forms.
According to education, French verb tenses are divided into simple and compound. Simple tenses are formed by changing the form of the semantic verb, while compound tenses require an auxiliary verb to form. So, let's start in order. The key to French verbs lies in knowing the present tense forms (Indicatif Présent Actif) of the given verbs.
The formation of present tense forms varies depending on the verb group. Pay attention to the table of formation of Indicatif Présent Actif forms for all three groups:
I group II group III group
je mange je remplis je courses
tu manges tu remplis tu courses
il mange il remplit il court
nous mangeons nous remplissons nous courons
vous mangez vous remplissez vous courtez
ils mangent ils remplissent ils courent
Thus, knowing the simple present forms of French verbs, we can easily form Indicatif Imparfait, Passé Composé, as well as Passé and Futur Immédiat. To do this, we only need the endings of a given time, which we need to remember.
Passé Compose
To form Passé Composé, we need to know the real form of the auxiliary verbs avoir and être, as well as the Participe Passé of the main semantic verb. Thus, Passé Composé = avoir/ être in Présent + Participe Passé of the semantic verb.
Imparfait
To form Imparfait, you need to take the stem of the verb in the Indicatif Présent of the first person plural and add the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
Thus, for the verb of the second group remplir we get:
je remplissais
tu remplissais
il remplissait
nous remplissions
vous remplissiez
ils remplisaient
Plus-que-parfait
Knowing the temporary form of Imparfait, it will be easy for us to form Plus-que-parfait:
Imparfait of verbs avoir/être + Participe Passé of semantic verb
Future
To form Futur Simple you need to take the stem of the infinitive and add the endings -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont. So for the verb of the first group manger the conjugation in Futur Simple will be as follows:
je mangerai
tu mangeras
il mangera
nous mangerons
vous mangerez
ils mangeront
Passé Immediate
Verb venir in Présent + de + infinitive of the main semantic verb
Future Immediate
The verb aller in Présent + the infinitive of the main semantic verb.
Forms of the complex past tense - with avoir And être
Passé composé is formed using the present tense forms of the auxiliary verbs avoir or être and the participle
past tense of the corresponding verb.
When forming Passé composé using avoir The past participle is usually unchanged.
When forming Passé composé with être, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject of the sentence.
If the past participle refers to a plural subject that implies both feminine and masculine gender, then the participle is in the masculine form. For example:
Marc et Marie sont allés à la piscine.
Verbs forming the past tense with avoir or être
Most verbs form the past perfect tense with avoir.
Hier, Pierre a préparé le repas. Puis, il a mange.
Some verbs are formed into the past perfect tense using être:
This group includes verbs of movement in a certain direction and verbs of position in space: aller, arriver, entrer, partir, rester, rentrer, tomber, venir and revenir.
Hier, je suis allé(e) à Paris. Je suis arrivé(e) vers dix
The verbs naître, devenir, mourir and décéder are formed into the past perfect tense using être.
Il est ne en 1960.
By using être The complex past tense is also formed for all reflexive verbs.
Elle s"est réveillée. Puis, elle s"est levée.
Attention! If a reflexive verb is followed by a direct object, the past participle does not change. For example:
Elle s"est lavée. But: Elle s"est lavé les mains.
Some verbs can form the past complex using both auxiliaries.
The verbs monter, descendre, sortit, entrer and rentrer form the past perfect tense:
In most cases, using être: Elle est descendue du train,
With the help of avoir, if a direct object is used after them - Elle a descendu la valise du train.
Features of past participle forms in the formation of the complex past tense with avoir.
Usually, when forming a complex past tense with avoir, the form of the past participle does not change.
Nous avons vu Julie. We saw Julia
If the direct object comes before the verb in the past tense, then the participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object. A personal pronoun can also act as a direct object. For example: me, te, le, la, nous, vous and les. It is also possible to use the relative pronoun que in this function.
Est-ce que vous avez vu Julie? J"ai acheté les livres.
Oui, nous l"avons vue. Je les ai achetés.
C"est Julie que nous avons vue. Ce sont les livres que j"ai achetés.