What tenses are there in french

Nous mangeons du chocolat. Vous adorez faire du shopping. But, if you want to say you are in the middle of dancing, you can say, je suis en train de danser. The imparfait is known as the imperfect or the past continuous in English.

The imparfait is also used to talk about physical conditions, feelings, attitudes, time, weather, and the date. This form is used to talk about the main storyline, while the imparfait is used to talk about background information. The futur simple is used to talk about future events. This is the verb tense that took me the longest to employ in everyday language.

It is only used in literary texts and really formal speech. Anyone who masters this verb tense deserves a gold medal. First off, congratulations on making it through all of the indicative French verb tenses! This tense is used to talk about future events in the past.

But right now the end of the month is in the future, so you need to talk about them in the future as well. As you know, the subjunctive mood is used to talk about uncertain actions, hopes, dreams, etc.

In French, there are many phrases that must be followed by the subjunctive mood, so I wanted to share a few of those here first. Here are some examples of a simple phrase through all the different tenses of the indicatif form. I was eating a baguette when she called. I ate a baguette. I will eat a baguette upon arrival in Paris. Je mangerais une baguette si je pouvais.

I would eat a baguette if I could. I would have eaten a baguette if you had bought some. I would have eaten a baguette if I had had enough money. Il faut que je mange une baguette. It is necessary that I eat a baguette. Easy, right? The good news is that the present tense conjugation of -er verbs in the subjunctive is fairly straightforward. There are ways to learn how to conjugate verbs in the present rather easily.

With each person and each tense goes a specific ending, which you need to learn. Combine them to create the most relevant experience for you! Read More. They indicate when an action occurs. However, French grammar also uses moods, les modes, to indicate how the speaker feels about the action. For example, a speaker who wants to express a possibility would use the conditional while someone who want to give a command would use the imperative.

I ate an apple. Imperfect When to use it: This past tense is needed to talk about actions that are incomplete. Use it to describe continuous actions or states of being. When I was young, I was often shy.