Le présent, le passé composé, l’imparfait, l’impératif, le futur

simple, et le conditionnel.

N’oubliez pas le présent!

The present tense is formed by adding particular endings to the STEM of a verb (the stem is the part of the verb that never changes).

There are many irregular verbs in the present tense that do not follow a pre-set pattern, including these important ones:

être, avoir, faire, aller, venir, vouloir, pouvoir,

mettre, prendre, sortir, partir, dormir, servir,

lire, dire, écrire,

Remove the –ER and add: (PARLER : Stem = parl-)

• -e (je parle)• -es (tu parles)• -e (il/elle parle)• -ons (nous parlons)• -ez (vous parlez)• -ent (ils/elles parlent)

Remove the –IR and add:• (FINIR – stem: FIN-)• -is (je finis)• -is (tu finis)• -it (il/elle finit)• -issons (nous finissons)• -issez (vous finissez)• -issent (ils/elles finissent)

Remove the –RE and add: (ATTENDRE – stem: attend-)

• -s (j’attends)• -s (tu attends)• - (il/elle attend)• -ons (nous attendons)• -ez (vous attendez)• -ent (ils/elles attendent)

The passé composé is used to talk about a one-time event in the past (as opposed to l’imparfait, which is used to talk about ongoing past events)

It is formed with a helping verb (avoir or être) and a past participle.• Most verbs take ‘avoir’. But some…reflexives

and transitives (DRMRSVANDERTRAMPP) take ‘être’

To form a regular past participle, take off the ending of the infinitive and add a special ending:• -ER verbs: Take off –ER and add ‘é’• -IR verbs: Take off –IR and add ‘I’• -RE verbs: Take off –RE and add ‘U’

• “Je parle” = “J’ai parlé” in the passé composé.• “Il finit” = “Il a fini.” in the passé composé.• “Nous attendons.” = “Nous avons attendu.” in

the passé composé.

Some verbs have irregular past participles. In other words, you should have these memorized:• Avoir = eu• Être = été• Faire = fait• Pouvoir = pu• Vouloir = voulu• Devoir = Dû• Mettre = mis• Promettre = promis• Comprendre = compris• Croire = cru• Voir = vu• Venir = Venu• Devenir = Devenu• Revenir = Revenu

Some verbs take Être in the passé composé.When this is the case, the past participle must agree with the subject.

Verbs that take Être can be remembered using the acronym DRMRSVANDERTRAMPP and keeping in mind that they all have to do with coming and going (though, not all verbs that have to do with coming and going take être)

Devenir Entrer Revenir Rester Monter Tomber Retourner Rentrer Sortir Arriver Venir Mourir Aller Partir Naître Passer (par) Descendre

Reflexive verbs also take être and must agree with the subject.

They only agree if the verb is not following by a direct object (a body part)

E.G. • “Elles se brossent.” = “Elles se sont brossées”

in the passé composé. (Agreement)• “Elles se brossent les dents” = “Elles se sont

brossé les dents” in the passé composé. (No agreement because followed by a body part.

The imperfect is a verb tense used to talk about ongoing past action – describing how things were or used to be in the past.

This is used often in story-telling.

E.G.

Martine regardait Dora beaucoup quand elle était petite.

The formation of the imperfect is somewhat simple: You take the present tense ‘nous’ form of the verb, drop the ‘ons’ and add the following endings:

-ais (je disais)-ais (tu disais)-ait (il disait)-ions (nous disions)-iez (vous disiez)-aient (ils disaient)

The imperative isn’t really a verb tense as much as it is a way to make commands – it is outside of time.

When you want to give a command, you use the ‘tu’, ‘vous’, or ‘nous’ form depending on if you’re telling somebody else to do something or saying ‘Let’s’ do something.

The major change is that –ER verbs drop the –s in the ‘tu’ form of commands.• E.G. “Regarde le match.” is the command of “Tu

regardes le match.”

Remember that pronouns will follow the verb in commands:

If you have more than one pronoun in a command: le, la, les come before lui, leur which come before moi, toi, nous, and vous• Thus, “Regarde le match” becomes “Regarde-le.”

when you want the pronoun instead of the noun.• If you wanted to use pronouns in the command

“Donne-moi les devoirs.”, it would read “Donne-les moi.”

To say what you will do, take the infinitive of the verb, and add the following endings:• -ai• -as• -a• -ons• -ez• -ent

To say what you would do, take the infinitive of the verb and add the following endings:• -ais• -ais• -ait• -ions• -iez• -aient

Some verbs don’t take the infinitive as the stem. Instead, they have a special stem. Please memorize this list:

Être = ser- Faire = fer- Aller = ir- Avoir = aur- Savoir = saur- Voir = verr- Envoyer = enverr- Pouvoir = pourr- Devoir = devr- Recevoir = recevr- Vouloir = voudr- Venir = viendr- Falloir = faudr-