Skip to main content
Loading Explore guides…
French Tenses · Acedra
Home
Explore
Languages
French Tenses
Sign in to save
Chat
If YouTube asks you to sign in, open the video on YouTube.
Watch on YouTube
Reload player
Transcript
67 segments
Copy
Hide video
0:01
Welcome to this video where you'll learn all tenses that you need in French. This video is really for everybody learning French, for beginners, intermediate or advanced, because we will cover tenses for A1 A2 B1 B2 levels, so that's really for everybody. You can see the list here, all the tenses that we are going to cover and I put the time stamps in the video so you can jump directly to the specific topic that you want to study,
0:39
although I would recommend you to watch the whole video, because you might anyway learn something new. I always give some tips for the conjugation, or when and how to use these tenses, so you might learn something new. My name is Sebastian, I'm french teacher. I've been teaching online for six years now and I developped my own program. This is a combination of a self-study material with videos, PDF documents, exercises and live sessions where we meet once or twice a week
1:20
to practice these topics, so if you like the way I explain things then you will love my classes.
1:32
First of all, I just want to clarify something with the personal pronouns. If you check a conjugation book, it always comes in this order. JE stands for 'I', TU stands for 'you' in an informal way, really like for friends, family, informal. and then IL stands for 'he' masculine. ELLE stands for 'she' feminine, but then we also have ON, that is a bit specific and we really use it a lot, really a lot in French, it's very convenient, that stands for 'they' or 'people' but
2:19
also for 'we'. It depends on the context. If I say 'En Suisse, on parle allemand, francais, italien, I say here that these languages German French Italian are spoken, like 'they' 'people' speak, but then if I state some persons for instance if I say my wife and I we are going to a movie tonight I can also use ON as a substitute 'Ma femme et moi, on va au cinéma ce soir'.
3:00
The real pronoun for 'we' is NOUS and then VOUS stands for 'you' again but a in a formal way, talking to your boss, to an elderly person, to a shop owner, for waiters in restaurants. This is a formal way which is also to a group so it is a 'you' plural and then ILS stands for the masculine, ELLES stands for the feminine. In the video you'll see the conjugation, I usually put only JE, TU, IL, NOUS, VOUS, ILS just because it's shorter, that's easier,
3:46
but obviously it stands for all these pronouns. You'll see also that I will talk about reflexive pronouns so it is also important to explain what it is. In French, pretty much all verbs can be reflexive or not, really pretty much all of them. If I do something to somebody else or just like that, it is not reflexive. When I do something specifically to myself, it becomes reflexive. For instance shaving, now I shave myself, in English you don't
4:27
need a reflexive pronoun, we don't use that often in English but in French, yes. I do to myself, it is reflexive. I wash my car but I wash my hands, I do it for me then and the reflexive pronouns are JE ME, TU TE, IL SE, NOUS NOUS, VOUS VOUS, ILS SE. I will also mention these reflexive verbs, it's really important. Present tense. Really important to understand that in French, present tense it is for present 'I do' but also continuous present tense 'I am doing'. There is no continuous
5:19
tense in French, it is just one for both and no worries, there is no confusion with the context. It's totally fine. As in many languages, well, the most common verbs usually are irregulars, so you just need to see the conjugation and learn them. You know verbs such as 'to be' 'to have' 'to go', well they are irregular, but here let's talk about the conjugation for all other verbs, all regular
5:56
verbs. They are divided into three groups. First one is the main one, all the verbs in ground form, ending with -ER and there are really many; 'to speak' PARLER, 'to walk' MARCHER, 'to work', TRAVAILLER, 'to love' AIMER. It's really a long, long list and they all conjugate the same way. What I do is that I remove the ending -ER and I add these endings. Pay attention to the pronunciation because most of these letters don't sound. The final E doesn't sound, S either or
6:43
T orD usually they don't sound. Then we have the second group which is not as big as the first one. All the verbs ending with -IR. 'to finish' FINIR, 'to choose' CHOISIR, 'to slow down' RALENTIR. They conjugate the same way, we remove the IR and we add these endings. Then the third group,
7:30
verbs ending with -RE also -DRE and also -OIR. Well here, it's a bit more complicated because the third group has many small exceptions, often there is like a letter adding or a letter removing, so my advice here is; well get the sense of the language. I know it's hard at the beginning but then with the time it comes, you will see. What are the most likely endings, the most likely letters ? We can really narrow down a lot. JE, pretty much the only possibilities
8:27
are an S or an X and that's the same for TU, S or X, and then IL, the only possible letters are D or T. With that, you know, we really narrow down the possibilities and that's even easier with NOUS because it's always ONS. VOUS always EZ. lLS plural ENT.With that you can easily really figure out the conjugation and then, there are some letters coming in or going out but with the time you get this sense. With that base on present tense, we have imperative. Imperative, it is a
9:20
direct speech, it's an order for instance, like 'do this', 'stop', 'wait' or a recommendation, 'think about it', 'take your time'. It's also an invitation; 'please come in'. 'sit down', but anyway it is direct so it works only with TU, NOUS, VOUS. It is based on Present tense, so let's use the verb 'to speak' again so now if I want to make imperative like 'speak', 'speak up', what I do here is that I just remove the personal pronoun and I use the verb you
10:11
see that. In English it is let's speak, in French I don't need 'let's' just PARLONS. Little thing, you see that the S, the final S for TU disappears but it doesn't change the sound. One thing also, negative, that is also important. Negative, there are plenty of negative adverbs, expressions, but here let's use only 'not' or 'don't'. In French, there is a double negative. NE before the verb PAS after the verb. In present tense that would be.... Imperative,
11:14
well we keep the same structure, NE before the verb PAS after the verb, so don't speak would be NE PARLE PAS. 'Let us not speak' NE PARLONS PAS. And 'don't speak' to a group of formal
11:33
NE PARLEZ PAS. Now with reflexive verbs, how does that work ? The reflexive pronouns remain in the structure, not the personal pronouns, but the reflexive pronoun yes, and TE transforms into TOI and it goes after the verb, with a dash. A reflexive verb for instance 'wake up' present tense... imperative... It's slightly different now with negative. Negative in imperative, the reflexive pronoun remains exactly the same and it goes before the verb so then don't wake up ...
12:46
Past tenses now, there are many, but you actually only need two, they cover pretty much everything. Passé Composé, perfect tense. Imparfait, imperfect. They give different information. First, let's see exactly when to use one or the other. Passé Composé is just an action done, so in English here you already have two tenses ; 'I have done' or 'I did'. In French passé composé covers both already, because it is the same if something happened recently, just
13:34
now or some time ago, or really long ago. It is something just 'I did', 'I have done'. Imparfait, in the other hand covers more situation. First we have a description or a state. When I say this house was blue, yesterday I was tired. Let's take a story here, for instance, description, state : 'when I was a child' that's imperfect, and then we have a repeated action. In English that would be 'I used to'. 'When I was a child, I used to go to school by bike'. Then we have a
14:26
continuous action 'I was doing'. 'When I was a child, I used to go to school by bike, one day I was riding very fast and I fell on the ground'. You see here 'I fell on the ground' that's just an action, so actually that would be perfect tense Passé Composé. You see that we can really mix, we can use both in the same sentence, just because they provide different information. Let's see an example here, first sentence present tense, 'In Colombia, I drink the best coffee in the world
15:13
since 10 years'. I use present tense because, even though I started 10 years ago, I still do it, it's not over, then it is not past tense. In English you could say like 'I have been drinking' this is also like a past form. Not in French. It is present tense here. Second sentence, I use passé composé. Here, that's just an experience. I did it on holiday, on a trip, well it was an experience. Third sentence, I use imparfait.Here it is past tense, I stopped. Because I'm
16:04
not in Colombia anymore or maybe this coffee is no longer available, anyway, somehow I stopped drinking it, but it was a habit, a repeated action. Let's see now the conjugation. First, passé composé. What we have is subject, auxiliary verb and the past participle. It's very similar to 'I have done' for instance. The difference is that in French we have two auxiliary verbs 'avoir' and 'être', so 'to have', 'to be'. There is a list of verbs and you just need to remember
16:50
them. AVOIR is the main one, for pretty much all verbs, and that's just the regular conjugation
16:59
and I put the past participle. For instance 'I watched' 'you watched'. Just a little tip to conjugate, to figure out the past participle, that's the verb in its past form. You remember the three groups, so the verbs first group ending with ER, the past form is É accent, for instance past tense, you see the pronunciation is important with present tense because when I say 'I speak' I don't pronounce the last e because if you do, then well I hear past tense so that's
17:58
really important here the pronunciation. Second group, the verbs ending with IR, they usually just end with I. The third group, verbs ending with RE, DRE, OIR they end with the letter U. Now the auxiliary verb ÊTRE. there is just a list here, you need to just remember and we conjugate...
18:56
Notice that with verb ÊTRE, then I also I have to accord the past participle, singular, plural, masculine, feminine. That is the difference. This is really the short list. Have you noticed here ? It's pretty much all about movement. This is a tip, but this is not a rule, because some verbs also about personal movement, they use verb AVOIR, such as NAGER 'to swim', MARCHER 'to walk, SAUTER 'to jump'. But beside that it's
19:39
really about movement, and it's also about transformation. For instance 'to be born' or 'to die', it is a transformation, but to that list, I also must add all reflexive verbs, yes. For instance if I say that I woke up this morning at 7 and I woke the kids up at 8, one is reflexive but not the other one I woke myself up, but then I woke the kids, not reflexive.
20:31
One more thing, this is really like the short list but you also must remember that in French we use like prefixes. It is like a pre-part, but just to give additional information to the verb. You know, the most common one is like in English, now 'I do' and 'I redo', it means like back or again so when I say that I came, but if I say that I came back, you know there is a prefix, but this is the same verb really, like the source is anyway VENIR 'to come'. We also have 'to become' DEVENIR
21:18
that also uses verb ÊTRE. There is still one thing really specific with passé composé, well that's the position of adverbs, because the adverbs they go in between, so if I say that 'I worked'. If I say that 'I worked a lot', well in between. If I say negative then, that 'I didn't work', so NE before for the auxiliary verb and PAS after the auxiliary verb, I didn't work. There is a reason for that now, because if I put PAS at the end, you see, it really sounds a lot like Present tense,
22:20
like 'I don't work', so past tense is really close, that's the reason why all these adverbs, in general, and negative adverbs ,they go like in between and I can add other ones, if I say that 'I didn't work very well' everything in between. That's just really clear for understanding. Then
22:59
imparfait, imperfect tense, the conjugation is based on NOUS, this is the root present tense NOUS and I use the radical so that means that I conjugate the verb in present tense NOUS, I remove ONS and I add the following endings.
23:31
Let's take a verb that really changes, if I take the verb 'to drink', see present tense, so I use NOUS, I remove ONS and that is the radical the root for imperfect.
24:03
Let's take another one, 'to know' personally. There is only one irregular verb, that's the verb 'to be', that's the only one we don't use here radical, we use the verb itself and I take ÉT but the endings are the same. There is just one more thing that I want to explain with past tense, here there is sometime a confusion with the perfect tense passé composé because when I say that it's an action done, it doesn't always mean that it is a single action, it can be like
25:18
several actions but that are clearly done. For instance, if I say that 'in my life, I travel a lot, I visited many countries' you can see that is not a single action because I visited many countries but I look back, I can see my life, I look back and my traveling days are gone, are long gone, so anyway it counts as an experience in my life and I use passé composé. Now if I zoom in, this is how I call it 'zoom out' 'zoom in', now let's say that
26:03
I zoom in a specific period in my life, for instance, when I was a student, so by then my traveling days were not over. It doesn't matter when I started and when I stopped, because when I was a student it was a habit so then here when 'I was student, I used to travel lot, I
26:40
used to visit many countries'. I said that, past tense, we can cover with only two; passé composé and imparfait. I just want to add another one which is really useful, it is pluperfect, that is in the past, an event before another one. For instance, we see each other today. What did you do yesterday ? I watched a movie. What movie ? The movie you had recommended me. You see there are two steps. The structure is really easy, it is similar as passé composé, but the auxiliary verb
27:33
is imparfait. For instance, 'Recommander', that's really an easy structure, just remember that we also have two auxiliary verbs with movement, then it uses verbe Être so I need to to do accordingly. If the verb use verbe auxiliaire Être, I need to put it auxiliary verb in imperfect as well. I went to Paris a city where I had been many times. The structure is really easy but, well, I maintain what I say, you can really do pretty much everything with only passé composé and imparfait,
28:53
we don't use that one, pluperfect that often, but it might be useful sometime. Another past tense here, very quickly, recent past. It is something that really just happened now. The structure is a bit weird, because we use the verb to come VENIR with the preposition DE and another verb in its ground form, so it sounds or it looks like I came to do something but no it means that I just did, for instance I just finished the work. The game just started. This is really a specific
29:54
structure when we need to express that something just really, just now and with that now, I can talk about future tense. Future tense, there are two. Well, there are many but you only need two; it is near future tense and simple future. Again, before the conjugation, let's see the difference.
30:25
It exists the same in English but we don't use exactly the same. It is very similar to 'I'm going to do' or 'I will do' so we have the two. Let's see exactly the difference. If I say, for instance, 'I'm going to watch a movie' or 'I will watch a movie' it seems to be the same but the difference is the probability, how likely is something going to happen. Obviously, near future, as it implies, it is something that is really soon in time so the the probability is higher. Tonight,
31:26
I'm going to watch a movie, but it's not only about time it's also about commitment. Now, the same sentence but I put tonight. You see, it is not about time, it's really about commitment. Let's say that 'Tonight, I'm going to watch a movie', it means that it's my plan, this is going to happen. If a friend calls me to go out and have a drink, I'll say no because I already have a plan. Futur simple, well there is no commitment here, it is more like if I'm home
32:13
not doing anything, I'll probably end up watching a movie, but if a friend calls me well to go out and have a drink, then I'll say yes, because I have no commitment to the movie. I know, in English, it's not exactly like that because we use like 'I'll watch', 'I'll do' really easily but in French this difference is much more like marked, it's much more important, I'm committed. The structure, really easy, we use the verb ALLER and another verb in its ground
32:54
form and there is no preposition in between, it's not like English, 'I'm going to watch', in French is really like 'I'm going watch' and that's it. Futur Simple, so here the conjugation. Well, the conjugation is based on the verb ground form with the following endings.
33:50
The only problem with that tense, that there are many irregular verbs. Look for them, like in the conjugation books and they are like the most common verbs. For instance 'to be'.
34:18
You see, there are many irregular verbs, but there is one thing here, is that what you learn for simple future is useful because it's the same for Conditional. Actually, Conditional is based on the future tense, it means that all irregular verbs in present tense are the same. So then conditional 'I would be' then these endings. Does that ring a bell ? You know like 'j'aimerais'... Conditional, well we use when there is a condition, of course,
35:20
but we also use in a polite form for instance 'I would like a coffee' so the verb like conditional and there is another one with the verb 'vouloir', well want which is also irregular conditional. It is used for polite form, but is also used with a condition. Here, it works really pretty much like English, so that's easy to understand. The condition 'if' is imperfect, and then the result,
36:18
the likely outcome, is conditional. Then, if I say that : 'if I had money, I would buy a car', so 'if I had' = imperfect. Then conditional 'I would buy a car', 'buy' = conditional. Now, Conditional, let's see exactly how it works here, because Conditional is not always mandatory, it really depends on the situation. Let's say that there is a an invitation to travel, to go on holiday, I just don't know yet, I don't know if I have the money. So, same thing, in English no ? 'If I have
37:13
the money, I go on the holiday with you', because it is present and possible, I just have to check.
37:30
But then I use the conditional when I know that the condition is missing. It is present, the outcome, but you know it is impossible because something is missing. Well, sorry, I can't go on holiday. 'If I had the money, I would go'. That also brings me to the Past Conditional. So, Past Conditional, the structure. Let's see that, Past Conditional, it is the subject, auxiliary verb in conditional, and the past participle. The thing here, you see that, because the condition 'if' is
38:27
imperfect, then 'if' it's really past, I need to go one step further. Remember that here we use Pluperfect, in a sense that, I have this invitation to travel, I check, I don't have money, I don't go, the person goes on holiday, comes back, and I say : 'Well yes, that's too bad, I would have loved to, if I had had the money, I would have gone with you on holiday'. Here, I used verb Être, because movement. We just use this auxiliary verb in conditional and then we
39:30
have the past participle as we'veseen, as you remember and actually, the structure is always the same and that is an advantage, because, in English, some verbs really have a different structure. I'm thinking about 'should', 'could', the structure is different. If I say that : 'if you have had told me, I could have helped you'. You see the structure here is a bit complicated, well, in French no. I use the verb 'could' 'can' in its past form. Well, that one is irregular,
40:27
and then 'help' just remains ground form. It's not in past 'I could have helped'. No, here it's really that : 'I would have could helping you'. You see it's really always the same structure. Past Conditional is not very useful, not very used, we don't use that often, but anyway, I put it here in the list because it is useful for certain situations that are really good to know. In English also, like : 'you should have told me', 'you could have done
41:07
that' that are really useful sentences. In French that would be : 'I would have wanted'
41:30
and also we use this Conditional with like the condition like : "Oh, if only I had known'. For instance... I just use the condition and not the outcome, or the results, but it goes with and here I use... You remember when I said that there is no continuous tense in French ? Well, that's not entirely true, there is something called Participe Présent. It is a verb really similar to the continuous tense 'doing' and the ending in French is -ANT. So yes, it is a continuous tense,
42:27
but we use that in really specific situation, not exactly in a sentence like 'I am doing the work', but sometime we need it. It is really convenient if I want to say, for instance, in the train, you can hear the speakers saying like : "All passengers traveling to Paris must change train in Lyon" for instance. Here, there is a continuous tense : "All passengers traveling". I'm not using with the personal pronoun 'they are traveling'. The form,
43:05
just 'traveling' also exists in French and that is Participe Présent. This sentence would be... The structure here it is based on present tense NOUS, radical. We remove the -ONS and we add -ANT. So, speaking. 'People speaking French are welcome in Quebec'.
43:59
Some verbs in present tense, you see, that are kind of irregular. we did the example with BOIRE 'to drink' and that brings me Gerund, it's very useful when we want to explain an action with another action. For instance : 'I work while drinking coffee'. You see, I'm mixing two actions and that's really useful. I just use Participe Présent, but with the preposition EN, like 'while doing'. 'I walk while talking on the phone', so it is not exactly Continuous tense
45:05
as you know in English, 'I am doing', but in some situation that is very, very useful.
45:14
Last but not least, this is really like the "dark beast". This is not a tense, it is like a mood, it is the Subjunctive mood. It is based on Present tense and I know, that one is really complicated and frustrating, because it doesn't exist in English, or at least not the same way. In English like : 'if I were you' that is Subjunctive, but we don't use it that way in French. In French, Subjunctive is when we express a desire, a will, a wish, or a doubt. It
46:00
gives this additional information and, yes, it's really hard to spot it, or to know exactly when to use it, but there is a simple trick I think. The trick is to think about an interaction with a consequence. Yes, just like that. I give you an example, you see, I organize a party and I want my friend to come. You see, there is an interaction and there is a possible consequence, because that he comes, it's important. He doesn't come, I'm disappointed, so I use the Subjunctive
46:58
mode here. The sentence is not just Present tense. No, I need to use the Subjunctive. You have to distinguish here the wishes, but really like the link, the consequence with just an information.
47:28
Same thing, I organize a party and then, you know, I just 'think' that this friend is coming. I just think, but it's not really important, it doesn't affect me if he comes or not. Then, I just say ... You see that, here, it's just an information, Present tense, there is no Subjunctive mode here really. Maybe another example, so you can understand better. Present tense. Subjunctive. It's pretty much the same thing but you can see that ; one is really just
48:18
an information, I think that's the best solution, that's just like that, there's nothing to do,
48:25
like no consequence. But if I use here the Subjunctive, here, there is an action that we have to implement, this solution with a possible positive, negative outcome. You see that's really just different information. Just information, or link, interaction and consequence. How does that work ? Here the conjugation is : The subjunctive is based on third person plural present tense, radical. For instance... so I use ILS remove the -ENT and that is the root. Hold on, because here
49:39
it seems that there is a irregular verb. There are many verbs like that, there is a difference with the singular pronouns or the plural. Let me add another rule. Third person plural that works for ... but then let's take radical NOUS only for NOUS and VOUS. Sou see here that anyway present tense it is so the subjunctive. Let's take another one : BOIRE. I know, I use a lot this verb 'to drink' because it is irregular so that's really perfect to see all
50:35
these differences. Present tense ... so let's take the two different and that becomes ...
51:01
Here we go. Well thank you for watching the video until here. I wish you all the best for learning French and if you like the way I explain things, check my webpage, there is a program especially designed with a combination of self- learning material, videos, PDF documents, exercises and live classes. Thank you very much, see you soon.
Here to help you learn
Sign in to keep a private conversation with your course tutor.
Ask me anything about the material…
Sign in to chat