The French Present Tense For Beginners

The Present Tense is a massively important tense in French and once you understand this you will be able to start communicating straight away.

What Is The Present Tense In French?

We use the present tense when we want to talk about right now and is also known as the ‘Present Indicative’ in French.

This is the tense that will get you by as a beginner as it is the most commonly used tense. Once you master this you can move on to talk about the past or the future.  

When To Use The Present Tense In French?

You can use the present tense for the following situations:

Current Actions

• Je joue au tennis – I am playing tennis
• Je mange – I am eating

Current State Of Mind/Being

• Je suis fatigue – I am tired
• Le train est en retard – The train is late

Habits

• Je regarde des films – I watch movies
• Je fume – I smoke

When Something Is About To Occur

• Je visite le muse plus tard  – I am visiting the museum later
• Je travaille le dimanche – I work on sunday

Absolute Truths

• J’aime le gateau – I like cake
• Je respire de l’oxygène – I breathe oxygen

Is The French Present Tense The Same As English?

Yes and no.

Both are used to talk about right now, but in English we have two present tenses. The Simple Present and the Present Progressive

The Simple Present would be – I play.

The Present Progressive would be – I am playing.

The difference being that the “I am playing” is currently on going. In French there is not a difference the same word can mean both.

“Je joue” can mean both “I play” and “I am playing”.

This is one of those things in French where the direct translation is not perfect, so long as you can understand it can mean both; you will start to get use to it.

Over time you will get better at understanding the context and will understand what is being said without any confusion.

Etre en train de / I am

It is a common mistake to try and say “Je suis joue” to try and say “I am playing” but this would be incorrect.

If you really want to be able to differentiate between the two versions (I play or I am playing) you can use – etre en train de…

This will stress that you are doing the action right now; it basically means “I am in the process of”.  

“Je suis en train de joue” will now mean “I am playing”

You could also use “je joue maintenant” to say “I am playing now” which would give you more context when saying that it is something that is happening right now.

Verbs And Tenses In French

The main way to know what tense someone is using to look at the verbs and how they are formed.

This is the same in English. We know “I am playing” is the present and “I have played” is in past.

How the verb “Play” is written, tells us when it happened. This is conjugation and the same process is needed in French.

“To Play” is “Jouer” these are both the infinitive forms of the verb in English and French, the basic standard dictionary definition form of the word.

If we want to use it in a sentence, we can conjugate it to say who is doing this action, and when.

Hopefully you have already read how about Pronouns, so now we can look at how the verbs themselves are conjugated for each pronoun.

In French, verbs will fall into 4 categories. Verbs ending in -ER, -IR, -RE and irregular verbs 

-ER Verbs In The French Present Tense

Most verbs in French end with -ER, but always remember there are a few irregular ones, such as Aller, that do not follow the rules.

To conjugate an -ER verb, you start by removing the -ER so you are just left with the stem.

You then add the ending that corresponds with the pronoun, it really is that simple.

In the example below, we will use Parler – To Speak,

We start by removing the –ER so that we get ‘Parl’ as our stem. We then add the required ending for the pronoun we want to use.

Pronoun Stem+Ending = Conjugated Verb

Pronoun	Stem	Ending
Je	Parl +	-E	Je parle – I speak
Tu	Parl +	-ES	Tu parles – You speak
Il/Elle/On	Parl +	-E	Il/Elle parle – He/She speaks
Nous	Parl +	-ONS	Nous parlons – We speak
Vous	Parl +	-EZ	Vouz parlez – You speak
Ils/Elles	Parl +	-ENT	Ils/ells parlent – They speaks

-IR Verbs In The French Present Tense

These verbs work in a similar way, the majority will follow the rules, but as always there will be a few exceptions. You will have to learn these irregular verbs separately.

In this example we will use Finir – To Finish

We also remove the -IR from these verbs. We then take this stem “Fin” and we then follow the table to work out what letters need to added for what pronoun.

Pronoun Stem+Ending = Conjugated Verb

Pronoun	Stem	Ending
Je	Fin+	-IS	Je finis – I finish
Tu	Fin+	-IS	Tu finis – You finish
Il/Elle/On	Fin+	-IT	Il/Elle finit  – He/She finishes
Nous	Fin+	-ISSONS	Nous finissons – We finish
Vous	Fin+	-ISSEZ	Vouz finissez –  You finish
Ils/Elles	Fin+	-ISSENT	Ils/ells finissents  – They finishes

-RE Verbs In The French Present Tense

-RE verbs also work in the same way as the others, we remove the -RE and then use the table to see what needs added for each pronoun.

Also, let’s not forget that some -RE verbs may be irregular and you will have to learn their conjugation in there own way.

In this example we will use Vendre – To Sell

We remove the -RE and are left with ‘Vend’ as our stem

Pronoun Stem+Ending = Conjugated Verb

Pronoun	Stem	Ending
Je	Vend+	-S	Je vends – I sell
Tu	Vend+	-S	Tu vends – You sell
Il/Elle/On	Vend+	–	Il/Elle vend  – He/She sells
Nous	Vend+	-ONS	Nous vendons – We sell
Vous	Vend+	-EZ	Vouz vendez – You sell
Ils/Elles	Vend+	-ENT	Ils/ells vendent  – They sells

(Yes, the il/elle/on does not have an ending. You just use the stem, nothing is added)

Irregular Verbs In The French Present Tense

Annoyingly some of the most common verbs in French are irregular, so you can’t really ignore them.

You will just need to learn their conjugations. You will notice that sometimes they are usually not too different from some of the 3 groups above, which can actually be more annoying, as you need to think carefully about them and their small differences.

It can be frustrating having to learn extra verb conjugations, but as I said, they can be quite common. You will quickly get used to using them and recognising their differences.

Some of the most common irregular verbs are:

• Etre
• Avior
• Aller
• Faire
• Savoir
• Dire
• Venir
• Voir
• Vouloir
• Pouvoir

If you can master these irregular verbs, and then remember the 3 rules for -ER, -IR and -RE verbs, you will pretty much be able to talk about anything in the present tense.

Conclusion

The present tense is really important in French, It can seem like a lot to take in but when you think about it, it is actually not a lot to learn to be able to speak a huge portion of the language.

It is very wise to invest some of your time into mastering these verbs. They will give you a solid grip on the language and really start helping you to start communicating with natives.  

(Read the next lesson – Three Very Common And Important French Verbs – Être, Avoir and Aller)