Note: the verbs venir and tenir are completely irregular. lose the d in their plural forms. The present tense in French grammar (le présent) corresponds to the English simple present. In the following pages you can find explanations and examples for each of the French tenses. In addition, we transform the n to gn in the plural forms. ThoughtCo. Regular present tense forms. The French present tense, called le présent or le présent de l'indicatif, is quite similar in usage to the English present tense. Image of French Present continous (you can download or share) Exercise: Fill the blanks French Present Continuous If the final syllable of the word stem contains an, Le présent – tableaux de conjugaison (être/avoir), Le présent – tableaux de conjugaison (verbes réguliers), Le présent – tableaux de conjugaison (verbes irréguliers), Le présent – négation (verbes pronominaux), Le présent – place des mots (affirmation), Le présent – place des mots (interrogation). Le présent, or the present tense, is the tense used to express current actions, habitual actions, absolute truths, actions which will occur immediately and it has three equivalents in English. the duration of actions that started in the past and are ongoing in the present. My examples are Chinese and Japanese. Check out their conjugations on our page on irregular verbs in French and practise in the exercises. The table lists the present tense conjugations for the regular -ER verbs parler (to speak or talk), donner (to give), and visiter (to visit). Verbs that end in -indre (atteindrewait, craindrefear, éteindreturn off, joindrecombine, peindrepaint, plaindrepity, teindredye ...) lose the d in the singular and plural forms. Go to the PART 1A. Present tense is used to express: Current actions and situations Le garçon s’appelle Félix. We use the French present tense to express: To conjugate French verbs in the present tense, we remove the infinitive ending (-er, -ir or -re) and add the following endings: The table below shows the present tense conjugation of -er verbs: The majority of -ir verbs belong to type 1, which means that the plural forms add -iss- before the present tense endings: Many common verbs are conjugated in this way: applaudirapplaud, choisirchoose, divertiramuse, fleurirbloom, grandirgrow, grossirput on weight, guérircure, haïrhate, maigrirlose weight, nourrirnourish/feed, obéirobey, pâlirgo pale, punirpunish, ralentirslow down, remplir(re)fill, réjouircelebrate, réunirmeet, réussirsucceed, rougirblush, saisirgrasp, vieillirto age, etc. The présent continu is formed as follows: present tense conjugation of être + en train de + infinitive. You can use the French verb aller (meaning to go) followed by an infinitive in the same way. ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, thoughtco.com/french-present-tense-1368922. Le présent: the present tense in French grammar, How to conjugate the present tense in French, facts and ongoing situations in the present, actions that happen once, multiple times or never in the present, a future action that is already planned or agreed upon (requires a specific future time indicator). Je prends is the present tense of the verb prendre - to take: je prends - I take, I am taking tu prends - you take, you are taking il prend - he takes, he is taking You can also use the verb translator and find the word in French or English.. Tenses. In French, the present tense is used to express all of the following: Je suis fatigué. Je (regarder) ______ la télévision avant d'aller me coucher. Si vous voulez. Click on the link to be taken to the topic, then put … Give it a shot and test yourself. 3. Easy! For the present tense in French, remove the last 2 letters from the verb (either “ar”, “ir”, or “re”) and then add the correct ending. To learn how to conjugate French verbs in the present tense and then test yourself, please see these related lessons: ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Get 3 months membership for just €10.49 (≈ $12.69). J'arrive ! With Lingolia Plus you can access 36 additional exercises about Le présent, as well as 561 online exercises to improve your French. It’s used for actions that are happening in the present (i.e. (2020, August 26). Tu (manger) ______ des frites et du poisson tous les midis ? Forming the French Present Tense. Then add the six present tense endings specific to -er verbs: -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent, and you’re done. Note: The present tense is not used after certain constructions that indicate an action that will occur in the future, such as après que (after) and aussitôt que (as soon as). Further, the present tense can be used for habitual actions. A simple explanation of "Conjugate vouloir in Le Présent (present tense)". The present tense in French is formed with the following endings: for verbs ending in -er with -e, -es, -e, -ons, … I visit museums on Saturdays. **Other verbs that follow the same conjugation include: courirrun, fuirrun away, mentirlie, partirleave, sentirfeel, servirserve, sortirgo out, etc. Nous allons au marché. Our online exercises for French help you to learn and practice grammar rules in an interactive manner. If I can, I will go with you. He goes to football training every Tuesday.. His team has an important match next Tuesday at 2 o’clock. The présent continu, also known as the présent progressif or the présent duratif, is the French equivalent of the present progressive in English (I am doing, he is going, etc.). So for “parler” (to speak), you would remove the -er and add one of the following endings: .-ER Verb Endings je = E nous = ONS tu = ES vous = EZ The present tense in French. So to say "I am eating (right now)," you would literally say "I am in the process of eating": Je suis en train de manger. Play games about Être - To be in the present tense in French. The French present tense has three different English equivalents, because the English helping verbs "to be" and "to do" are not translated into French. This notion is then modified by the grammatical mood. I am speaking 3. However, in order to stress that something is in the process of happening in French, we can use the construction ÊTRE EN TRAIN DE + Infinitive. A simple explanation of "Conjugate courir in Le Présent (present tense)". And that will be our focus … Instead, the future is used in French. French Present Tense. The present tense in French is much like the present tense in English. 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