Introduction

In English, a simple present tense action is one that occurs over a long period of time or one that occurs at only one specific moment. For example, "I talk every day" implies that I use my vocal cords to articulate some thought on a daily basis. It is an ongoing action. But, "You talk first, then he talks" indicates a specific moment in time. To be precise in English, we use a compound construction--i.e. "I am talking" to clarify if the action is currently ongoing. In French, there is no such construction in the present tense. A verb conjugated in the present indicative can have either meaning depending on the context of the sentence.

Ex. Je chante bien. = I sing well. OR I am singing well.

Nous descendons les éscaliers tous les jours = We go down the steps every day.

Nous descendons les éscaliers à ce moment = We are going down the steps at this moment.

In French, we sometimes have to use the present tense when we would use some other tense in English. One such case is with the preposition depuis = "since" or "for".

For example, in English, we would say:

We have been going to school for fifteen years.

In this sentence, the compound verb "have been" indicates the ongoing nature of this action. Its directly equivalent in French is the passé composé. However, this would be incorrect. In French, we must use le présent de l'indicatif:

Nous allons à l'école depuis quinze ans.

Regular -er verbs

Most verbs in French are regular -er verbs. That means that the infinitive of the verb ends with -er and it is conjugated in the same way throughout the tenses. One example of a regular -er verb is "parler" = to speak. To conjugate a verb, we must take off the ending, in this case the -er to give us the stem or root. Thus, we have "parl" as the stem for our verb. To conjugate the verb in the present indicative, we add the following endings:

Present indicative endings for -er verbs
je (I) = enous (we) = ons
tu (you) = esvous (you) = ez
il (he) = eils (they) = ent

When we put it all together, we wind up with a functional phrase:

Present indicative of parler = to speak
je parle = I speak*nous parlons = we speak
tu parles = you speakvous parlez = you speak
il parle = he speaksils parlent = they speak

*When the stem of a verb ends with a "g", add an "e" before the "ons" ending in order to preserve the soft g sound. When the stem of a verb ends with "c", change the "c" to "ç" before adding the "ons" ending. This accent mark, called a cedilla changes what would otherwise be a hard c--[k]--into a soft c-- [s]. Ex:

Regular -re verbs

Just like regular -er verbs, regular -re verbs follow a consistent pattern throughout their conjugation. We form them in the same way--that is, obtaining the root, or radical, by removing the -re from the infinitive and adding the correct endings. NOTE: Not all verbs ending in -re are regular. You must learn which verbs are actually regular -re verbs and which follow an irregular conjugation pattern.

The endings for regular -re verbs are very similar to -er verbs, but not exactly:

Present indicative endings of regular -re verbs
je (I) = snous (we) = ons
tu (you) = svous (you) = ez
il (he) = no endingils (they) = ent

An example of an -re verb is descendre. To obtain the root, we take off the "re" to get descend. So, when we put the root with the endings, we get the following:

Present indicative of descendre = to descend
je descends = I descend nous descendons = we descend
tu descends = you descend vous descendez = you descend
il descend = he descends ils descendent = they descend

You will notice that most REGULAR -re verbs end their STEMS with "d" or "p." Ex.

This does not mean that all such verbs are regular -re verbs. Ex.

Regular -ir verbs

There is another class of verbs in French which follows a consistent pattern throughout the tenses; these are the -ir verbs. Again, these are called -ir verbs because their infinitives end with the letters "-ir". We form the root by removing the -ir. Then, we add the endings. Remember: not all verbs ending in -ir are regular. You must learn which ones are regular and which are not.

The endings for regular -ir verbs are as follows:

Present indicative endings of regular -ir verbs
je (I) = is nous (we) = issons
tu (you) = is vous (you) = issez
il (he) = it ils (they) = issent

Now, let's take an example of an -ir verb: finir = to finish.

Present indicative of finir = to finish
je finis = I finishnous finissons = we finish
tu finis = you finishvous finissez = you finish
il finit = he finishesils finissent= they finish

Most verbs ending in the letters -ir are NOT regular. It is interesting to note, however, that almost all verbs involving a change in color are regular -ir verbs. For example:

jaunir = to (turn) yellow
rougir = to turn red; to redden; to blush
noircir = to turn black; to blacken
verdir = to turn green

Irregular verbs

There are over 80 different TYPES of irregular verb conjugations in the French language. It would be too difficult to list all of them. It would not be particularly useful, either, since some of these types only include a few, often archaic, verbs. However, there are a few types of conjugations which will be crucial when speaking French. I will attempt to include as many of them as possible.

First, the two most important irregular verbs are the words for "to be" and "to have." We will need these verbs to make most French sentences. The problem is that both of them are highly irregular (as in most languages). Each of them makes up its own verb type.

Present indicative of être = to be
je suis = I amnous sommes = we are
tu es = you arevous êtes = you are
il est = he isils sont= they are

Être is used in the phrase "Comment est-on?" meaning "What does one look like?" Here are some examples:

Present indicative of avoir = to have
*j'ai = I havenous avons = we have
tu as = you havevous avez = you have
il a = he hasils ont= they have

*When a verb begins with a vowel or a silent (aspirate) h, delete the "e" from "je", add an apostrophe and make the two one word. Ex. In French, some expressions that require "to be" in English must use avoir in French. For example, the French do not say "I am 21 years old." Instead they say, "I have 21 years." It is the same thing with "I am hungry." Instead, they say, "I have hunger." Here are some of these expressions:

Aller

How many times a day do you use the word "go" in a sentence? If you are going to speak French well, you'll have to know this one really well.

Even though this verb ends in -er, it is not regular. There is no pattern to know here, just memorize it! There are no verbs like it.

Present indicative of aller = to go
je vais = I gonous allons = we go
tu vas = you govous allez = you go
il va = he goils vont= they go

*This verb is used in the expression "Comment allez-vous?" meaning How are you doing? The verb "être" is never used to ask about someone's well-being. Always use aller. Here are some examples:

Verbs conjugated like faire

Some verbs in French are conjugated like the verb faire = "to do" or "to make" . This is a fairly irregular verb, but an important one.

Present indicative of faire = to do; to make
je fais = I donous faisons = we do
tu fais = you dovous faites = you do
il fait = he doesils font= they do

Verbs conjugated like faire usually are related to it in some way:
Pay special attention to the vousform of this verb. It is highly irregular. Avoid the tendancy to say "vous faisez."

Idiomatic expressions in a language are those expressions which cannot be directly translated word for word. In French, the verb faire is involved in many of these expressions. It is impossible to produce an exhaustive list, but some common ones are:

Verbs conjugated like prendre

The group of verbs conjugated like prendre is not extremely large, but these verbs, too, are very important ones.

Present indicative of prendre = to take
je prends = I takenous prenons = we take
tu prends = you takevous prenez = you take
il prend = he takesils prennent= they take
On the surface, prendre seems like a regular -re verb because it has the regular -re verb endings. However, notice that the stem is not the same throughout, like with regular -re verbs. The stem can be "prend", "pren", or even "prenn".

Verbs conjugated like prendre include:

Note: Use the verb prendre when discussing decisions.
Ex. Ils prennent une décision aujourd'hui. = They are making a decision today.
NOT: Ils font une decision aujourd'hui.

Comprendre usually means "to understand." When it means "to include", it is normally used in the expression y compris = including.
Ex. Nous venons tous, y compris ma soeur. = We are all coming, including my sister.

Reflexive (pronominal) verbs in the present indicative


Introduction
In French and English, reflexive verbs are used to express an action that people do to themselves. For example, we must have some way of saying that when I washed, it was I whom I washed. So, we say I washed myself. This serves the purpose of making the doer of the action also the receiver of the action. The word "myself" in this case is a reflexive pronoun. The reflexive pronouns in English are:

Some examples of the usage of these pronouns:

Again, the key to reflexive verbs is that the doer(s) of the action are also the receiver(s). Notice that in English, the reflexive pronoun followsthe verb

In French, reflexive pronouns precede the verb in all cases. The infinitive of a reflexive verb is formed by simply adding "se" before the regular infinitive. Thus, "parler" (to speak) becomes "se parler" (to speak to oneself) in its reflexive form. "Faire" (to do) become "se faire" (to do to oneself). In the present tense, there are no major adaptations to the verb itself. Conjugate it the same way you would the non-reflexive verb. You simply insert the reflexive pronoun between the subject and the verb. Later on, there will be examples for you to study.

Reflexive (pronominal) pronouns in French
*me = myself nous = ourselves/each other
*te = yourself vous = yourself/yourselves/each other
*se = himself/herself/oneself *se = themselves/each other

*The reflexive pronouns "me, te, se" drop their "e" and add an apostrophe before a verb beginning with a vowel or silent h. This will become important with the compound tenses later on.

Here are some more examples of reflexive verb usage:

Some expressions that require a reflexive verb in French may not translate exactly to a reflexive verb in English. There are also special grammatical rules concerning the use of reflexive verbs pertaining to parts of the body.

When saying that someone did something to a certain part of the body, we use a reflexive verb in French, even though it would not be necessary in English. For example, in English, we say, "I brush my teeth each morning." In this sentence, we do not see the word "myself" and thus, this is not a reflexive verb. A literal translation of this sentence into French would be: "Je brosse mes dents chaque matin." This translation is incorrect. The correct translation is: "Je me brosse les dents chaque matin."

You will notice that "me" was inserted and instead of saying "mes dents", we must say "les dents." Word for word, this means, "I brush myself the teeth each morning." It is in this way that all sentences pertaining to doing things to parts of the body are constructed in French. Here are some more examples:

Remember not to use the possessive adjective (mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, etc.) with the body part when talking about actions done to parts of the body. Use a reflexive verb and the appropriate definite article (le, la, les). Sometimes, reflexive verbs have a special meaning that is not easy to translate directly. One example of this is the use of reflexive verbs to indicate a passive sense to a phrase. An example of a passive phrase in English would be: "The problem was easily seen." Here, "was seen" is a passive verb because "problem" is doing nothing at all. Even though "problem" is the subject of the sentence, it is not actively doing anything. All passive verbs contain some form of be (être in French) and a past participle (in this case, "seen"). Some other examples of passive phrases would be "The goal is accomplished by you," or "The race was completed by the team."

Most of the time, sentences like these can be translated directly into French using the correct form of être and the past participle. Other times, however, it is possible to use a reflexive verb instead of the passive. When speaking about very general concepts, it is best to do this. Here are some examples:

To summarize, it is best to use a reflexive verb or other grammatical structure to avoid the passive voice whenever possible.

Please send comments and suggestions to sohlhaut@nlci.com.

Last updated: 2 April 2000.