#french verbs

il neige = it's snowing (présent)

il a neigé = it snowed (passé composé)

il neigeait = it snowed/it used to snow (imparfait)

il avait neigé = it had snowed (plus que parfait)

il neigera = it will snow (futur simple)

il va neiger = it's going to snow (future proche)

Je viens = I come

Tu viens = You come

Il vient = He comes

Elle vient = She comes

Nous venons = We come

Vous venez = You come (plural or formal)

Ils viennent = They come (masculine)

Elles viennent = They come (feminine)

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J’ai été — I was (passé composé ; completed actions or a specific event in the past)

J’étais — I was (imperfect tense ; past habitual state)

Je serai — I will be

Je serais — I would be

Je pourrais être — I could be

You know, the classic "why the fuck does French have so many tenses"

So now I explain it as early on as possible. Like, I have this student, Alex - she knows some French but it's still pretty basic stuff.

We're now going through the past tenses, but beforehand I explained how the system works.

Yes, there is a system.

French is based on the narrator's point of view. Whenever you speak, you first choose a "universe" (indicative for Reality, Conditional for possibilities based on external conditions, Subjonctif for your own feelings, wants and doubts, and imperative to give orders)

Then, within these universes you have tenses. Indicative, being the Reality Mode, is the most complete one and has Present, Past & Future. Each of those have 2 options: a simple tense or a composed tense.

The other three modes just have two options: simple or composed.

Simple tenses are used when the narrator puts the importance on the verb itself (think kind of like an -ING in English), whereas the composed tenses put the focus on the result of the verb.

That means:

Conditional simple -> you can still change, it could still happen; whereas for composed conditional the result is already here -> it's too late (I should do X =/= I should have done X)

Future simple -> this will happen ; whereas composed future is a deadline -> this will be finished by x

Subjunctive also has the will be happening vs will be finished

For the Indicative past, that's the most complex.

-> Imparfait (simple tense) implies an -ING vibe: like Paul réparait ma voiture, we'll visualize Paul while he's fixing the car (and expect something to happen bc it's not interesting let's be honest). We don't know if he succeeded or not, because it's not important to the narrator.

-> Passé composé implies that we care about the result of the verb : Paul a réparé ma voiture implies the car is now fixed, which is THE important info because now I can go to the party or whatever.

After explaining this, we're now working with Alex on how to choose between imparfait and passé composé in context to make sure we're implying what we want and not getting quiproquos!

It's super hard sometimes but it's a lot of fun (according to her!) to just make up scenarios, imagine how it changes if we switch up the tense from simple to composed, etc!

If you guys are interested, I could show you examples where changing simple/composed changes the meaning of the sentence!

imperative travaillé (sing.) travaillez (pl.)

present participle: travaillant - working past participle: travaillé - worked

present je travaille - I work tu travailles - you work il/elle travaille - he/she works nous travaillons - we work vous travaillez - you work ils/elles travaillent - they work

imperfect je travaillais - I was working tu travaillais - you were working il/elle travaillait - he/she was working nous travaillions - we were working vous travailliez - you were working ils/elles travaillaient - they were working

future je travaillerai - I will work tu travailleras - you will work il/elle travaillera - he/she will work nous travaillerons - we will work vous travaillerez - you will work ils/elles travailleront - they will work

perfect j'ai travaillé - I have worked tu as travaillé - you have worked il/elle a travaillé - he/she has worked nous avons travaillé - we have worked vous avez travaillé - you have worked ils/elles travaillé - they have worked

pluperfect j'avais travaillé - I had worked tu avais travaillé - you had worked il/elle avait travaillé - he/she had worked nous avions travaillé - we had worked vous aviez travaillé - you had worked ils/elles avaient travaillé - they had worked

future perfect j'aurai travaillé - I will have worked tu auras travaillé - you will have worked il/elle aura travaillé - he/she will have worked nous aurons travaillé - we will have worked vous aurez travaillé - you will have worked ils auront travaillé - you will have worked

present conditional je travaillerais tu travaillerais il/elle travaillerait nous travaillerions vous travailleriez ils/elles travailleraient

past conditional j'aurais travaillé tu aurais travaillé il/elle aurait travaillé nous aurions travaillé vous auriez travaillé ils/elles auraient travaillé

present subjunctive je travaille tu travailles il/elle travaille nous travaillions vous travailliez ils/elles travaillent

notes:

currently, these are only indicatif conjugations

there are different decks for different "categories" of verbs, but there is one parent deck for easier access to all decks

this masterlist will be updated every day, with a minimum of two verbs each

all verbs

07-31-22 essentials

étre

être* - to be

avoir* - to have

vouloir* - to want

avoir besoin de** - to need

penser - to think

dire* - to say

savoir* - to know

aider - to help

aimer - to like

aller* - to go

*=irregular conjugation

/EfLuhReh/