The French present tense, called le présent or le présent de l'indicatif, is quite similar in usage to the English present tense. In French, the present tense is used to express all of the following:
- Current actions and situations
- Habitual actions
- Absolute and general truths
- Actions which will occur immediately
- Conditions, such as in si clauses
Passé Composé (Past Tense)
The passé composé is the most common French past tense. It can be used to express the following:
- An action completed in the past
- An action repeated a number of times in the past
- A series of actions completed in the past
Imparfait
The French imperfect (imparfait) is a descriptive past tense which indicates an ongoing state of being or a repeated or incomplete action. The beginning and end of the state of being or action are not indicated, and the imperfect is very often translated in English as "was" or "was ___-ing." The imperfect can indicate any of the following:
- Habitual actions or states of being
- Physical and emotional descriptions of the past: time, weather, age, feelings
- Actions or states of an unspecified duration
- Background information in conjunction with the passé composé
- Wishes or suggestions
- Conditions in si clauses
Future Tense
The French future tense talks about upcoming events.
Some French verbs, however, have irregular "future stems." So instead of taking the infinitive form, you would begin the verb with the irregular stem and add on the appropriate future tense ending. Here are some of the most common irregular future stems.
The Conditional
The French conditional mood describes events that are not guaranteed to occur; often they are dependent on certain conditions.
The Past Conditional
The French past conditional is usually used to express action that would have occurred if, in the past, circumstances had been different.
The Past Perfect
If you would like to request that I make a chart for something else (i.e., subjunctive or si clause), please let me know by emailing icwfrenchclub@gmail.com :)
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