Present Tense - what is happening now / what usually happens Most regular verbs follow these patterns: Verbs ending in –er e.g. regarder: to watch je regarde nous regardons tu regardes vous regardez il/elle/on regarde ils/elles regardent Verbs ending in –re e.g. attendre: to wait J’attends nous attendons tu attends vous attendez il/elle/on attend ils/elles attendent Verbs ending in –ir e.g. finir: to finish je finis nous finissons tu finis vous finissez il/elle/on finit ils/elles finissent Irregular verbs follow their own patterns and must be learnt separately

Perfect Tense (1) – something which happened in the past The perfect tense is formed as follows: An auxiliary verb (avoir or être) + The past participle of the main verb Regular verbs form their past participles as follows: Verbs ending in –er: take off –er and add é e.g regardé – watched Verbs ending in –re : take off –re and add u e.g attendu – waited Verbs ending in –ir : take off –ir e.g. fini: finished Irregular verbs need to be learnt separately

Perfect Tense (2) The majority of verbs form their perfect tense with avoir: J’ai nous avons tu as vous avez il/elle/on a ils/elles ont e.g J’ai visité le musée – I visited the museum 13 verbs form their perfect tense with être (usually involving movement / change of state): Je suis nous sommes tu es vous êtes il/elle/on est ils/elles sont e.g Je suis allé au cinéma – I went to the cinema Reflexive verbs also use être e.g Je me suis couché(e) – I went to bed N.B. With être verbs in the perfet tense, add –e to the past participle for feminine, add –s for plural and add –es for feminine plural

Imperfect Tense The imperfect tense can be used to describe what things were like in the past, what was happening at a given moment and what used to happen e.g Je regardais – I was watching / I used to watch To form the imperfect tense you take the ‘nous’ form of the present tense, remove the ‘ons’ and add the endings. Imperfect tense endings are as follows: Je ais nous ions tu ais vous iez il/elle/on ait ils/elles aient e.g J’avais un chien – I used to have a dog For être (to be) the imperfect endings are added onto the stem ét- e.g J’ étais triste – I was sad C’était chouette – It was great

Pluperfect Tense The pluperfect tense is used to report events that took place before another event in the past / something that had happened. It is made up of 2 parts: The imperfect tense of avoir or être + The past participle of the main verb e.g. J’avais donné - I had given / J’ étais allé - I had gone Useful phrases to learn: J’avais déjà vu le film Nous avons passé les vacances dans un camping en France. Mon père avait réservé un bon emplacement Le jour de mon anniversiare j’ai reçu l’argent que mes parents m’avaient promis I had already seen the film We spent the holidays at a campsite in France. My father had booked a good pitch On my birthday I got the money that my parents had promised me

The infinitive of the main verb Near Future Tense This is used to talk about what is going to happen in the future e.g. je vais regarder It is formed with: The present tense of the verb aller + The infinitive of the main verb e.g Je vais aller au cinéma – I’m going to the cinema Elle va avoir un bébé - she’s going to have a baby aller je vais nous allons tu vas vous allez il/elle/on va ils/elles vont

Future Tense This is used to talk about what will happen in the future e.g. je regarderai It is formed by adding the future tense ending onto the future stem Future tense endings: je –ai nous -ons tu -as vous -ez il/elle/on -a ils/elles -ont Future tense stems: For regular -er and –ir verbs the stem is the same as the inifintive For regular -re verbs the stem is formed by taking off the final –e e.g tu visiteras – you will visit For irregular verbs the stems need to be learnt separately e.g. aller: ir- / être : ser / avoir: aur / faire: fer e.g nous aurons – you will have

Conditional Tense This is used when you want to say “would”. The conditional tense is formed with the same endings as the imperfect tense, however,the endings are added to the future stem. e.g Je donnerais – I would give Je finirais – I would finish Je vendrais – I would sell N.B leave off the final –e of the infinitive when using re verbs Irregular verbs examples: aller: J’irais – I would go avoir: J’aurais – I would have être: Je serais – I would be faire: Je ferais – I would do / make venir: Je viendrais – I would give voir: Je verrais – I would see vouloir: Je voudrais – I would like Useful phrases to learn: Je voudrais aller en France en été Si j’avais de l’argent, j’irais en France I would like to go to France in the summer If I had some money I would go to France