FRENCH NOTE 17
THE TWENTY TENSES / CONJUGATION
The idea of this note is not to frighten you. You should know what are the tenses of the French verbs. You may not be using all of them. In the last note , we studied about the six moods. In this note we shall relate the tenses to these six moods.
TEMPS SIMPLE
We talked about the indicative mood. Remember there are four simple tenses in French .
They are
1. Present
2.imperfect
3. Simple past
4. Simple future
In French , the terminology for the above would be
1.présent simple
2. Imparfait
3. Passé simple
4. Futur simple
Why do we call them using the term " simple "?
For the reason that these tenses are expressed by using only one word of the verb. For example , the simple present of the verb " parler" would be expressed in the following manner.
Je parle
Tu parles
Il / elle/ on parle
Nous parlons
Vous parlez
Ils/elles parlent
So you understood the reason for using the word " simple" .
So there are four simple tenses in the indicative mood. We are going to learn about their use in great depth. Simple past is used mainly in literary texts. The other three tenses are very frequently used in daily life both in speech and writing . We shall devote much time on them.
TEMPS COMPOSÉ
There are certain tenses which use the simple tenses of auxiliary verbs and the passé participe of the relevant verb to form compound tenses as in English . Suppose you say, " I have completed it "
" have completed " is an example of compound tense. It has got two components. First component is that of auxiliary verb " have" and the second component is the past participle of the relevant verb " to complete".
For example,
Je suis allé , tu es allé , nous avons parlé. These are examples of compunc tenses . In French , they are known as passé composé .
In French , such tenses are called " temps composé ".
Have you understood ?
For each simple tense, there is a corresponding compound tense. Hence there will be four compound tenses. In all for the indicative mood, there will be 8 tenses. Let me list out their names in French . In future it is better we use the French name . Wherever possible , I shall give you the English names also.
1. Passé composé
2. Plus que parfait
3. Passé Antérieur
4.Futur Antérieur
Now I shall list out the other tenses without explaining in detail for all the other moods.
The conditional mood has two tenses. 1) le conditionnel présent 2) le conditionnel passé
The subjunctive mood has four tenses , two simple and two composé . They are
1. Subjonctif présent 2. Subjonctif imparfait 3.subjonctif passé 4. Subjonctif plus que parfait
The first two are simple tenses and the other two are composé.
The imperative mood has two tenses. Present and past . The second one is composé .
The infinitive mood has two tenses present and past.
The participle mood has also two tenses.
In all if you add up there will be twenty tenses , ten simple and ten composé .
In subsequent notes we shall learn the conjugation of verbs for each tense and how to use them. More than learning the rules of conjugation , you have to understand the nuances in using French verbs. It is going to be a time consuming job. Don't be in a hurry . I have my own way of introducing topics at the right time. Don't say I have not covered this or that . I shall cover everything at the appropriate time. The purpose of this note is to give you only a broad picture of tenses in French
Next we shall deal with present tense formation and use for all the Verb groups.
Sayee Jayaraman
26/11/2014
THE TWENTY TENSES / CONJUGATION
The idea of this note is not to frighten you. You should know what are the tenses of the French verbs. You may not be using all of them. In the last note , we studied about the six moods. In this note we shall relate the tenses to these six moods.
TEMPS SIMPLE
We talked about the indicative mood. Remember there are four simple tenses in French .
They are
1. Present
2.imperfect
3. Simple past
4. Simple future
In French , the terminology for the above would be
1.présent simple
2. Imparfait
3. Passé simple
4. Futur simple
Why do we call them using the term " simple "?
For the reason that these tenses are expressed by using only one word of the verb. For example , the simple present of the verb " parler" would be expressed in the following manner.
Je parle
Tu parles
Il / elle/ on parle
Nous parlons
Vous parlez
Ils/elles parlent
So you understood the reason for using the word " simple" .
So there are four simple tenses in the indicative mood. We are going to learn about their use in great depth. Simple past is used mainly in literary texts. The other three tenses are very frequently used in daily life both in speech and writing . We shall devote much time on them.
TEMPS COMPOSÉ
There are certain tenses which use the simple tenses of auxiliary verbs and the passé participe of the relevant verb to form compound tenses as in English . Suppose you say, " I have completed it "
" have completed " is an example of compound tense. It has got two components. First component is that of auxiliary verb " have" and the second component is the past participle of the relevant verb " to complete".
For example,
Je suis allé , tu es allé , nous avons parlé. These are examples of compunc tenses . In French , they are known as passé composé .
In French , such tenses are called " temps composé ".
Have you understood ?
For each simple tense, there is a corresponding compound tense. Hence there will be four compound tenses. In all for the indicative mood, there will be 8 tenses. Let me list out their names in French . In future it is better we use the French name . Wherever possible , I shall give you the English names also.
1. Passé composé
2. Plus que parfait
3. Passé Antérieur
4.Futur Antérieur
Now I shall list out the other tenses without explaining in detail for all the other moods.
The conditional mood has two tenses. 1) le conditionnel présent 2) le conditionnel passé
The subjunctive mood has four tenses , two simple and two composé . They are
1. Subjonctif présent 2. Subjonctif imparfait 3.subjonctif passé 4. Subjonctif plus que parfait
The first two are simple tenses and the other two are composé.
The imperative mood has two tenses. Present and past . The second one is composé .
The infinitive mood has two tenses present and past.
The participle mood has also two tenses.
In all if you add up there will be twenty tenses , ten simple and ten composé .
In subsequent notes we shall learn the conjugation of verbs for each tense and how to use them. More than learning the rules of conjugation , you have to understand the nuances in using French verbs. It is going to be a time consuming job. Don't be in a hurry . I have my own way of introducing topics at the right time. Don't say I have not covered this or that . I shall cover everything at the appropriate time. The purpose of this note is to give you only a broad picture of tenses in French
Next we shall deal with present tense formation and use for all the Verb groups.
Sayee Jayaraman
26/11/2014
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