Present Tense - what is happening now / what usually happens

1
Present Tense - what is happening now / what
usually happens

• Most regular verbs follow these patterns
• Verbs ending in er e.g. regarder to watch
• je regarde nous regardons
• tu regardes vous regardez
• il/elle/on regarde ils/elles regardent
• Verbs ending in re e.g. attendre to wait
• Jattends nous attendons
• tu attends vous attendez
• il/elle/on attend ils/elles attendent
• Verbs ending in ir e.g. finir to finish
• je finis nous finissons
• tu finis vous finissez

2
Perfect Tense (1) something which happened in
the past

• The perfect tense is formed as follows
• An auxiliary verb (avoir or être)
• The past participle of the main verb
• Regular verbs form their past participles as
  follows
• Verbs ending in er take off er and add é
• e.g regardé watched
• Verbs ending in re take off re and add u
• e.g attendu waited
• Verbs ending in ir take off ir
• e.g. fini finished
• Irregular verbs need to be learnt separately

3
Perfect Tense (2)

• The majority of verbs form their perfect tense
  with avoir
• Jai nous avons
• tu as vous avez
• il/elle/on a ils/elles ont
• e.g Jai visité le musée I visited the museum
• 13 verbs form their perfect tense with être
  (usually involving movement /
• change of state)
• Je suis nous sommes
• tu es vous êtes
• il/elle/on est ils/elles sont
• e.g Je suis allé au cinéma I went to the cinema
• Reflexive verbs also use être
• e.g Je me suis couché(e) I went to bed
• N.B. With être verbs in the perfet tense, add e
  to the past participle for

4
Imperfect Tense

• The imperfect tense can be used to describe what
  things were like in the
• past, what was happening at a given moment and
  what used to happen
• e.g Je regardais I was watching / I used to
  watch
• To form the imperfect tense you take the nous
  form of the present
• tense, remove the ons and add the endings.
• Imperfect tense endings are as follows
• Je ais nous ions
• tu ais vous iez
• il/elle/on ait ils/elles aient
• e.g Javais un chien I used to have a dog
• For être (to be) the imperfect endings are added
  onto the stem ét-
• e.g J étais triste I was sad
• Cétait chouette It was great

5
Pluperfect Tense

• The pluperfect tense is used to report events
  that took place before another
• event in the past / something that had happened.
  It is made up of 2 parts
• The imperfect tense of avoir or être
• The past participle of the main verb
• e.g. Javais donné - I had given / J étais
  allé - I had gone
• Useful phrases to learn

I had already seen the film We spent the
holidays at a campsite in France. My father had
booked a good pitch On my birthday I got the
money that my parents had promised me
Javais déjà vu le film Nous avons passé les
vacances dans un camping en France. Mon père
avait réservé un bon emplacement Le jour de mon
anniversiare jai reçu largent que mes parents
mavaient promis
6
Near Future Tense

• This is used to talk about what is going to
  happen in the future
• e.g. je vais regarder
• It is formed with
• The present tense of the verb aller
• The infinitive of the main verb
• e.g Je vais aller au cinéma Im going to the
  cinema
• Elle va avoir un bébé - shes going to
  have a baby
• aller
• je vais nous allons
• tu vas vous allez
• il/elle/on va ils/elles vont

7
Future Tense

• This is used to talk about what will happen in
  the future
• e.g. je regarderai
• It is formed by adding the future tense ending
  onto the
• future stem
• Future tense endings
• je ai nous -ons
• tu -as vous -ez
• il/elle/on -a ils/elles -ont
• Future tense stems
• For regular -er and ir verbs the stem is the
  same as the inifintive
• For regular -re verbs the stem is formed by
  taking off the final e
• e.g tu visiteras you will visit
• For irregular verbs the stems need to be learnt
  separately
• e.g. aller ir- / être ser / avoir aur /
  faire fer

8
Conditional Tense

• This is used when you want to say would.
• The conditional tense is formed with the same
  endings as the imperfect tense,
• however,the endings are added to the future stem.
  
• e.g Je donnerais I would give
• Je finirais I would finish
• Je vendrais I would sell
• N.B leave off the final e of the infinitive when
  using re verbs
• Irregular verbs examples
• aller Jirais I would go
• avoir Jaurais I would have
• être Je serais I would be
• faire Je ferais I would do / make
• venir Je viendrais I would give
• voir Je verrais I would see
• vouloir Je voudrais I would like

I would like to go to France in the summer If I
had some money I would go to France
Je voudrais aller en France en été Si javais de
largent, jirais en France