Friday, March 6, 2020
Introduction to the French Present Tense
Introduction to the French Present Tense The French present tense, called le prà ©sent or le prà ©sent de lindicatif, is quite similar in usage to the English present tense. In French, the present tense is used to express all of the following: I. Current actions and situations    Je suis fatiguà ©.   I am tired.   Nous allons au marchà ©.   We are going to the market. II. Habitual actions    Il va là ©cole tous les jours.   He goes to school every day.   Je visite des musà ©es le samedi.   I visit museums on Saturdays. III. Absolute and general truths    La terre est ronde.   The earth is round.   Là ©ducation est importante.   Education is important. IV. Actions which will occur immediately    Jarrive !   Ill be right there!   Il part tout de suite.   He is leaving right away. V. Conditions, such as in si clauses    Si je peux, jirai avec toi.   If I can, I will go with you.   Si vous voulez.   If you like. Note: The present tense is not used after certain constructions that indicate an action that will occur in the future, such as aprà ¨s que (after) and aussità ´t que (as soon as). Instead, the future is used 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. For example, je mange can mean all of the following: I eat.I am eating.I do eat. If you want to emphasize the fact that something is happening right now, you can use the conjugated verb à ªtre en train de infinitive. 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. To learn how to conjugate French verbs in the present tense and then test yourself, please see these related lessons: Regular Verbs  -ER verbs -IR verbs -RE verbs
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