Verbs are probably the most important part of a language. A working knowledge of their different forms allows you to express your needs and opinions successfully. There are two major conjugations in French: the –er (parler) and the –re (attendre) conjugation. There are two –ir conjugations (remplir and partir). Many of the most commonly used words, however, follow irregular patterns of conjugation (être, avoir, aller, faire, dire, écrire, boire, savoir, prendre, pouvoir, vouloir, venir, etc.).

To give you an opportunity to review your knowledge of tenses we will quickly recap some of their most important features:

PRESENT

The French Present tense expresses the following English notions:
 

ÊTRE EN TRAIN DE + INFINITIVE

If you need to STRESS that an action is going on even as you speak, you can use the expression être en train de.
 

You can use this expression to refer to past events as well:
 

FUTURE: ALLER + INFINITIVE

The immediate future is generally formed with the verb aller and an infinitive:
 

Note that the immediate future can be expressed with a simple progressive ("are you doing") or the progressive of "to go" + infinitive ("we're going to watch"). Even in French it is not always necessary to use aller to express the future—particularly in cases where the main verb is aller:
 

FUTURE

To express events in the more distant future, French uses special Future endings which are added to the infinitive of most verbs. For some verbs, special Future stems exist:
 

VENIR DE + INFINITIVE

To refer to an event that has just happened, use the venir de + infinitive construction.
 

PASSÉ COMPOSÉ

This tense is used when you want to express that the event in the past is completed—done and over with. The Passé Composé is formed by combining the Present tense of the helping verbs avoir or être with the Past Participle of the action verb. You can use the Passé Composé to express the following English tenses:
 

The Past Participle of verbs ending in –er is formed with –é (e.g., parlé). That of verbs ending in –re is formed with –u (e.g., attendu). Many verbs ending in –ir have a Past Participle ending in –i (e.g., sorti). Some verbs have special Past Participles which need to be memorized.

IMPERFECT

The Imperfect is used when referring to a situation or action that goes on for an undetermined period of time in the past (as in progressive or repetitive actions or in descriptions). Such verbs as être, avoir, vouloir, savoir, and pouvoir are more often used in the Imperfect than in the Passé Composé. The Imperfect corresponds to the English "was... –ing" or "used to...." Consider the following examples:
 

To form the Imperfect take the Present tense nous form of the verb, remove the ending -ons, and add the Imperfect endings –ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, and –aient. The only verb that does not follow this method of forming the past tense is être (j'étais, etc.).

CONDITIONAL

The Conditional is used to express politeness and "should" in the case of the verb devoir, and is used whenever we use "would" in English. Its stem is the same as that for the Future, its endings are those of the Imperfect.
 

THE PLUS-QUE-PARFAIT

The Plus-que-parfait—Past Perfect is used to express that an action or condition in the past took place BEFORE another action or condition in the past.

The Past Perfect is formed with the helping verb (avoir or être) in the Imperfect + Past Participle:
 

Putting the keys on the table happens before returning—the two actions cannot overlap.

It is best to review tenses and verb forms frequently.

Examples of Review of Tenses

• Ah, mais oui! Voilà votre nom. Asseyez-vous. Stéphane sera avec vous dans un instant.
• Non, mais vous avez vu ça? Un pourboire de 5 francs.
• Avez-vous entendu la tirade de Stéphane?
• S'il s'était agité ainsi chez moi, je l'aurais renvoyé tout de suite.