Language/French/Grammar/Easy-way-of-generating-the-present-tense
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Rate this lesson:
An easy way of generating the present tense
For regular verbs ending in -er (like donner), -ir (the finir kind whose stems sometimes end in -iss-: fin-iss-ons, fin-iss-ant, fin-iss-aient, etc., but NOT the dormir kind) or -re (like vendre), take the infinitive form of the verb, omit the ending -er, -ir or -re (this creates a stem: donn-, fin-, vend-) and add the following endings:
Take a moment to explore these relevant pages as you conclude this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Conditional Mood & Adverbs ending in —ément derived from adjectives ending in —e.
French Present Tense Endings[edit | edit source]
je | tu | il/elle | nous | vous | ils/elles | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
-er verbs | -e | -es | -e | -ons | -ez | -ent |
-ir verbs (most verbs) | -is | -is | -it | -issons | -issez | -issent |
-re verbs | -s | -s | - | -ons | -ez | -ent |
Examples[edit | edit source]
For example:
Infinitive | Stem | Present tense |
---|---|---|
donner | donn- | je donn- e, etc. |
finir | fin- | je fin- is, etc. |
vendre | vend- | je vend- s, etc. |
Videos[edit | edit source]
Present tense in French[edit | edit source]
Present tense Endings in french -Basic French[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Pronouns referring to groups of mixed gender
- Future Tense
- Compound Tenses
- Choosing between il est and c'est
- Easy way of generating the imperfect subjunctive
- How to write and read numbers
- Subject verb agreement
- Prepositions
- Subject verb agreement when subject quantifiers are present
- "C'est" or "Ce sont"
- Place adverbs
- Adverbs
- Directly transitive verbs
- Verbs which are directly transitive in French
- Infinitives