The indicative present, in French, the present indicative is one of the most complicated tenses with many irregularities. BUT you will see that you can deal with it.Like many things when it comes to learning a language, continuing to practice is the best way to achieve your goal.Nevertheless, we will give you here a few tips to guess how to conjugate verbs to the present indicative in French.
First things first! The use of this tense!
Even though it may seem obvious, it is necessary to start at the beginning.We could argue that the present is the present and that it is the same for everyone.This is factually true, of course, but all languages in the world does not share the same features when it comes to the utilisation of the present tense (when conjugations even exists!).
In French, the indicative present can correspond to a fact or an event/action :
- from the past, especially telling a story (in a joke, a novel, a fairy tale, etc.). It gives a feeling of acceleration of the story and make it feel more like it is real.
- accompished or being accomplished at the moment of the speech
- Example: Je mange une glace. = I am eating an icecream.
- Example: Je tombe par terre. = I fall on the ground.
- from the near future (with the use of a time connector related to the future : demain, après, lundi prochain, etc.). It can express a decision, for example. We also can use the construction « aller+verbe infinitif » to talk about a future action.
- Example: Demain, je vais à la piscine.
- Example: Je vais manger. = I will eat.
The present indicative intrinsincaly does not express whether the action or the fact is performed or still ongoing. This is the verb which supports the idea of accomplishment or process. For instance, « tomber » (to fall) expresses an accomplished action and « changer » (to change) indicates the process of changing.
However, we can use the expression « venir de » followed by the action verb at the infinitive form, if we want to emphasize that an action just happened and finished. On the other hand, we can emphasize the idea that the action is in process with the expression « être en train de » followed by the action verb at the infinitive form.
- Example: Je viens de manger. = I just finished eating.
- Example: Je suis en train de manger. = I am eating.
We also can use the present to talk about general truths, which were true in the past, are true in the present and will be true in the future, or personal habits.
- Example: La Terre tourne autour du Soleil. = The Earth revolutes around the Sun.
- Example: Je me lève à 7h. = I wake up at 7 in the morning.
The construction and the endings
The construction of the indicative present requires the use of the personal pronoun and the correct ending. In an affirmative sentence, the pronoun will be usually before the verb and after in an interrogative sentence, the pronoun should be after the verb depending on the language register employed.
The endings for the indicative present can be discouraging, but the best way to learn them remains the practise. If you make mistakes, do not worry. Most of the time, the natives will be able to understand you as long as you used the correct personal pronoun and have a good enough pronunciation.
In order to make you the things easier, we will separate the possible endings into 5 different groups of verbs: two for the two groups of regular verbs and the three others for the irregular verbs. You will see that this method helps to emphasize similarities, differences and to deduce the correct endings a verb will have depending on its infinitive ending.
| Pronom Personnel | Verbes réguliers en -er + cueillir, offrir, ouvrir, souffrir et tressaillir | Verbes réguliers en -ir |
| Pronoms Singulier Je / j’ Tu Elle / Il / On | Endings : –e ; –es ; –e Chante Chantes Chante | Endings : –s ; –s ; –t Finis Finis Finit |
| Pronoms Pluriel Nous Vous Ils / Elles | Endings : –ons ; –ez ; –ent Chantons Chantez Chantent | Endings : –ssons ; –ssez ; –ssent Finissons Finissez Finissent |
| Pronom Personnel | La majorité des verbes irréguliers (irréguliers en -ir ; verbes en -oir ; -tre ; –oindre et –eindre) Exemple : Mettre (to put) + peindre (to paint) + voir (to see) | Les verbes en -dre Exemple : prendre (to take) | Pouvoir, vouloir, valoir |
| Pronoms Singulier Je / j’ Tu Elle / Il / On | Endings : -s ; -s ; -t Mets Peins vois Mets Peins vois Met Peint voit | Endings : -s ; -s ; -d Prends Prends Prend | Endings : -x ; -x ; -t Veux Veux Veut |
| Pronoms Pluriel Nous Vous Ils / Elles | Endings : -ons ; -ez ; -ent Mettons Peignons voyons Mettez Peignez voyez Mettent Peignent voient | Endings : -ons ; -ez ; -ent Prenons Prenez Prennent | Endings : -ons ; -ez ; -ent Voulons Voulez Veulent |
Of course, we must not forget « être » (-to be), « avoir » (-to have) and « aller » (-to go ; often used as a grammatical equivalent for -to will such as in the construction « aller+verbe infinitif » to express the future) and « faire » (to do, to make)! For Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or Romanian speaking persons, you may see some similarities between French and those languages. Be careful to not get confused between those languages though!
| Pronom Personnel | Être | Avoir | Aller | Faire |
| Pronoms Singulier : Je / j’ Tu Elle / Il / On | suis es est | ai as a | vais vas va | fais fais fait |
| Pronoms Pluriel Nous Vous Ils / Elles | sommes êtes sont | avons avez ont | allons allez vont | faisons faites font |
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