The Present Tense 3. Reflexive Verbs and the Present Tense 4. The Near Future Tense 5. The Simple Future Tense 6. The Conditional Tense 7

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2 PAGE The Present Tense 3 Reflexive Verbs and the Present Tense 4 The Near Future Tense 5 The Simple Future Tense 6 The Conditional Tense 7 The Perfect Tense: Avoir 8 The Perfect Tense: Etre (MRS VAN DE TRAMP) 9 The Perfect Tense: Reflexive Verbs 10 The Imperfect Tense 11 Negatives and verbs 12 Glossary 14 2

3 The present tense is used to describe what s happening now or what usually happens. Mon frère regarde la télé My brother is watching TV. D habitude, je fais mes devoirs après le collège. Usually, I do my homework after school. Regular Verbs Most verbs fall into 3 groups ER, RE, IR. We know which verb they are by the last 2 letters of the infinitive (whole verb). To conjugate (change) them, we must chop of the ER, RE or IR and add the correct ending. Je Tu Il/Elle/On Nous Vous Ils/Elles ER verbs RE verbs IR verbs e s is es s is e - it ons ons issons ez ez issez ont ent issent Je mange une poire. Je vends ma voiture. Je finis mes devoirs. I am eating a pear. I am selling my car. I am doing my homework. Irregular Verbs Some verbs don t follow the pattern above. We must learn them separately. These are some of the most important verbs you need to know for your GCSE (the super four) Je Tu Il/Elle/On Nous Vous Ils/Elles AVOIR to have ai as a avons avez ont ETRE to be suis es est sommes êtes sont ALLER to go vais vas va allons allez vont FAIRE to do/make fais fais fait faisons faîtes font ATTENTION! Before a vowel, we use j instead of je. E.g. J ai (I have) or J aime (I like). 3

4 Reflexive verbs are verbs whose actions are something that we do something to ourselves. Je me douche. I am (myself) showering. D habitude, je me réveille à sept heures et demie. Usually, I get (myself) up at half past seven. We know that a verb is reflexive because it has se before it its infinitive (or s before a vowel). Se is called a reflexive pronoun. se doucher se laver s habiller to shower (oneself) to wash (oneself) to dress (oneself) Reflexive verbs conjugate the same as other regular verbs in the present tense, but we must change the se (reflexive pronoun) depending on who we are talking about: Je Tu Il/Elle/On Nous Vous Ils/Elles Reflexive pronoun me / m te / t se / s nous vous se / s Example Je me douche Tu te douches Il se douche Nous nous douchons Vous vous douchez Ils se douchent Some more useful reflexive verbs : se réveiller se lever se raser se maquiller se coucher s endormir se brosser les dents se brosser les cheveux to get oneself up to get oneself up to shave oneself to put makeup on oneself to go to bed to fall asleep to brush one s teeth to brush one s hair 4

5 There are two types of future tense that you need to know. The Near Future and The Simple Future. The near future tense is used to describe what s going to happen. Mon frère va regarder la télé My brother is going to watch TV. Je vais faire mes devoirs après le collège. I m going to do my homework after school. To form the near future, we need: Present tense of aller + infinitive of the verb going to be done. Je vais manger une poire. Je vais vendre ma voiture. Je vais finir mes devoirs. I am going to eat a pear. I am going to sell my car. I am going to finish my HK. Remember ALLER: Je vais I am going Tu vas You are going Il/elle/on va He/she/one is going Nous allons We are going Vous allez You are going Ils/elles vont They are going The good news is that all verbs follow the same pattern for this tense ATTENTION: Reflexive verbs follow the same pattern. Just put the reflexive pronoun before the infinitive: Je vais me doucher (I m going to shower myself) 5

6 The simple future tense is used to describe what will happen. Mon frère regardera la télé My brother will watch TV. Je ferai mes devoirs après le collège I will do my homework after school. Regular Verbs To form the simple future, we must add the following endings to the infinitive. ATTENTION! For RE verbs, you need to chop off the e before adding the ending. je tu il/elle/on nous vous ils/elles ENDING ai as a ons ez ont Je mangerai une poire. Je vendrai ma voiture. Je finirai mes devoirs. I will eat a pear. I will sell my car. I will finish my homework. These endings are an awful lot like the present tense of avoir which is a good way to remember them. Irregular Verbs Some verbs don t follow the pattern above. Instead of using the infinitive, we must use a different stem. As with all irregular verbs, we must learn the stems separately. The most common (including the super four) are below: VERB STEM EXAMPLE Avoir aur j'aurai to have Etre ser je serai to be Aller ir j'irai to go Faire to do/make fer je ferai ATTENTION: Reflexive verbs follow the same pattern. Put the reflexive pronoun before the infinitive and add the correct ending: Je me doucherai (I will shower myself) 6

7 The present tense is used to describe possibility in the future. That s to say what might happen, should happen or could happen. Mon frère regarderait la télé My brother could watch TV. Je ferais mes devoirs après le collège. I might do my homework after school. If we know the simple future tense, forming the conditional tense is really easy. If we re talking about ourselves, we just add an s to the end of the simple future form. Regular Verbs To form the conditional tense, we add the following endings to the infinitive. Attention! Remember to take off the e from RE verbs before adding the ending. je tu il/elle/on nous vous ils/elles ENDING ais ais ait ions iez aient Irregular Verbs These verbs use the same stem as for the simple future tense but with the conditional ending. Some examples (including the super four) are below: VERB STEM EXAMPLE Avoir aur j'aurais to have Etre ser je serais to be Aller ir j'irais to go Faire to do/make fer je ferais ATTENTION: Reflexive verbs follow the same pattern. Put the reflexive pronoun before the infinitive and add the correct ending: Je me doucherais (I might shower myself) 7

8 The perfect tense is used to describe what has happened. It describes a completed action or a one off event. Mon frère a regardé la télé My brother has watched TV/ My brother watched TV. J ai fait mes devoirs après le collège I have done my homework after school/ I did my homework after school. Regular Verbs (AVOIR) For most verbs, the perfect tense is formed using the present tense of avoir (auxiliary verb) and the past participle. The past participles are really easy to form. For ER verbs, chop off the er and add é j ai mangé une poire. I have eaten a pear. For RE verbs, chop off the re and add u j ai vendu ma voiture I have sold my car. For IR verbs, chop off the ir and add i j ai fini mes devoirs. I have finished my HK. Irregular Verbs (AVOIR) For some irregular verbs, we can t chop off the ER, RE or IR and add the ending. These verbs have a different past participle which we must learn separately. Below are some useful irregular past participles. Infinitive Past Participle English Example faire fait to do/make j ai fait boire bu to drink j ai bu lire lu to read j ai lu être été to be j ai été dire dit to say j ai dit écrire écrit to write j ai écrit prendre pris to take j ai pris devoir dû to have to j ai dû 8

9 Regular Verbs (ETRE) For 13 special verbs, the perfect tense is formed using the present tense of être (instead of avoir) and the past participle. For all but three of these verbs, we form the past participle the same way as before (ER becomes é, RE becomes U and IR becomes i). This doesn t really make sense in English but it makes perfect French. Je suis allé au cinéma I am gone to the cinema / I went to the cinema. Je suis tombé I am fallen / I fell. We can remember these 13 verbs as MRS VAN DE TRAMP. Monter Rester Sortir Venir Arriver Naître Descendre Entrer Tomber Retourner Arriver Mourir Partir to climb/go up to stay to go out to come to arrive to be born to descend/go down to enter to fall to return to arrive to die to leave THREE OF THESE VERBS HAVE IRREGULAR PAST PARTICIPLES: VENIR venu NAITRE né MOURIR - mort ATTENTION! These 13 verbs have got 3 extra rules! If you re talking about something feminine, add an e to the past participle je suis allée If you re talking about more than one person/thing, add an s to the past participle ils sont allés If you re talking about more than one feminine thing, add an es to the past participle elles sont allées ATTENTION! THIS ONLY HAPPENS TO MRS VAN DE TRAMP VERBS. DON T ADD THEM TO THE OTHER VERBS! 9

10 To use reflexive verbs in the perfect tense, we do the same thing as MRS VAN DE TRAMP verbs. That is to say, we use the present tense of être and the past participle. The past participle is formed as normal (ER becomes é, RE becomes u, IR becomes i). The only difference is that the reflexive pronoun (se) goes in front of être. Je me suis douché. I myself am showered / I showered myself Je me suis réveillé à sept heures et demie. I myself am woken at half past seven / I woke myself up at half past seven. Attention! Because these verbs use être, we need to think about the three extra rules! If you re talking about something feminine, add an e to the past participle je me suis habillée If you re talking about more than one person/thing, add an s to the past participle ils se sont levés If you re talking about more than one feminine thing, add an es to the past participle elles se sont maquillées 10

11 The imperfect tense is a past tense used for many reasons. You can use it to describe something that happened regularly in the past J allais chez mes grand-parents tous les week-ends. I went to my grand-parents every weekend. 2. give a description of the past. Il faisait beau. It was sunny. 3. describe how things used to be Quand j étais jeune. When I was young. 4. to translate was/were...ing Je parlais avec mon ami. I was talking to my friend. 5. describe something that happened over a long time J habitais en France. I lived in France. 6. describe something you wanted to do but didn t. Je voulais regarder la télé. I wanted to watch the TV. 7. give an opinion. C était époustouflant! It was mind boggling! To form it, we take the nous form of the verb in the present tense. nous avons nous faisons nous regardons nous finissons Chop of the ons and add the following endings. je tu il/elle/on nous vous ils/elles ENDING ais ais ait ions iez aient EXAMPLE Je avais Tu faisais Il/elle/on regardait Nous finissions Vous attendiez Ils/Elles choisissaient ATTENTION! ETRE has an irregular stem. We use ét. E.g. C était (it was) 11

12 To make a sentence negative, you always need two parts, usually ne and pas. Like Ant and Dec, ne always goes on the left and pas is always on the right. Attention! Before a vowel, ne becomes n. J aime je n aime pas. Present Tense Ne and pas surround the verb like bullies, making the sentence negative... Je regarde la télévision Je ne regarde pas la télévision I watch TV / I am watching TV I don t watch TV / I am not watching TV For reflexive verbs, ne goes before the reflexive pronoun (me, se etc) and pas goes after the verb as usual... Je me lave Je ne me lave pas I wash myself I don t wash myself Near Future Tense Ne and pas surround the present tense of aller never the infinitive. Je vais jouer au foot Je ne vais pas jouer au foot I am going to play football I am not going to play football Simple Future Tense Ne and pas surround the whole verb. Je mangerai une pomme. Je ne mangerai pas de pomme. I will eat an apple. I will not eat an apple. Conditional Tense Ne and pas surround the whole verb. Je voudrais un gâteau. Je ne voudrais pas de gâteau. I would like a cake. I wouldn t like a cake. Perfect Tense Ne and pas surround the auxiliary verb (avoir or être) never the past participle. J ai regardé la télévision Je n ai pas regardé la télévision Je suis allé au cinéma Je ne suis pas allé au cinéma I have watched TV I have not watched TV I went to the cinema I didn t go to the cinema 12

13 For reflexive verbs, ne goes before the reflexive pronoun (me se etc) and pas goes after avoir or être as usual Je me suis lavé Je ne me suis pas lavé I have washed I have not washed Imperfect Tense Ne and pas surround the whole verb. Le film était effrayant. Le film n était pas effrayant. The film was scary The film wasn t scary ATTENTION! OTHER NEGATIVES! There are other forms of negative listed below. They usually follow the same pattern as ne... pas. Ne pas Not je ne mange pas I am not eating Ne jamais Never Il ne fait jamais ses devoirs Ne personne No one Il n y personne à la maison He never does his homework There is no one at home Ne plus No more, no longer Je n ai plus d argent I have no more money Ne rien Nothing, nor anything Elle n aime rien She doesn t like anything Ne ni ni Neither nor Il n a ni frères ni sœurs Ne que Only Je n ai dépensé que 10 hier He has neither brothers nor sisters I only spent 10 yesterday Ne aucun(e) No Je n ai aucune idée I have no idea 13

14 Conditional Tense Conjugation The tense used to describe possibility in the future. The changing of a verb from the infinitive. Imperfect Tense The tense used to describe the past (see page 11). Infinitive Irregular Verbs Near Future Perfect Tense Present Tense Pronoun Reflexive Pronoun Reflexive Verb Regular Verbs Simple Future The whole form of the verb that you find in the dictionary. Verbs which don t follow a pattern. These need to be learnt separately. The tense used to describe what is going to happen. The tense used to describe what has happened in a completed action or a one off event. The tense used to describe what s happening now or what usually happens. A word used to replace the name of an object (I, you, he, she, it, we, they, etc). The extra bit between the pronoun and the verb that s used to mean oneself (me, te, se, nous, vous). A verb whose action is done to ourselves ( I wash myself). Verbs which follow a pattern. The tense used to describe what will happen. 14