This document provides an overview of several French verb tenses: 1) The passé composé is used to express a completed action in the past and conjugation varies based on the verb type. 2) The imparfait expresses an ongoing or repeated action in the past by taking the nous form of the present tense verb and adding endings. 3) The futur simple represents a future event by taking the infinitive and adding conjugations of avoir, except for nous and vous. 4) The conditionnel expresses something that would have happened if something else did by taking the radical of the futur simple and adding imparfait endings.

1. Passé Composé
– Used to express a completed action in the past, e.g. I watched television lastnight.
– For –ER verbs, placethe conjugated form of AVOIR between the subjectand the participepasséremove the ER
and add an É to the end, e.g. usingREGARDER, Hier soir,j’ai regardéla télé.
– For –IR verbs, remove the IR and add an I to the end of the participepassé,e.g. usingFINIR,Tu as fini tes devoirs.
– For –RE verbs, remove the RE and add a U to the end of the participepassé,e.g. usingVENDRE, Il a vendu les
choses.
– Memorize participepasses for irregular verbs,e.g. AVOIR becomes EU, VOULOIR becomes VOULU, etc.
– DR. MRS. VANDERTRAMP (devenir, revenir, monter, rester, sortir,venir,arriver,naître, descendre, entrer,
rentrer, tomber, retourner, aller,mourir,partir) verbs usethe conjugation of être.
– Whileusingthese verbs, an accord has to be made.
– If the subjectis feminine, add an e to the end of the participepassé,and if the subjectis plural,add an
– E.g. Elleest allée,Ils sontpartis,Elles sontmontées
Imparfait
– Used to express an ongoing, repeated,or undefined action in the past.
– These actions either go for a really longtime or are unspecified
– Take the nous form of the verb in present tense, and remove the ONS, then add the endings: je: ais, tu: ais,
il/elle/on/qui: ait, nous: ions, vous: iez, ils/elles: aient
– E.g. Je jouais les sports –means I played sports for an unspecified length of time
– Only irregular verb is être which uses the ét- with endings,e.g. j’étais jeune
Imparfait vs. Passé Composé
– When an action is being done and is interrupted by another action, the interrupting action is always passé
composé while the interrupted action is always imparfait
– E.g. I was watchingtelevision when the phone rang – Je regardais la téléquand la téléphone a sonné.
– Imparfaitactions representlongterm, whilePasséComposé represents short term
Futur Simple
– Represents a future event that is going to occur
– Take the infinitive of the verb and add the correct conjugation of the verb AVOIR to the end, except for nous
and vous, which use –ons and –ez respectively
– E.g. They will play basketball –Ils jouerontlebasketball
– Memorize the bases for irregular verbs,e.g. ALLER becomes IR, FAIRE becomes FER, SAVOIR becomes SAUR, etc.
Conditionnel
– Represents something that would have been changed if something else had happened
– Uses a combination of imparfait and future
– Take the radical of the future form of the verb, and add the imparfait ending, e.g. tu jouerais,ellefinirait
– ALWAYS uses the word “SI”
– ImparfaitALWAYS follows SI and conditionnel is alwaystheother conjugation
– E.g. Si________(imparfait),….je/tu/il/etc._________(conditionnel)
– E.g. Je/tu/il/etc._________(conditionnel)…..si________(imparfait)
– E.g. We wouldn’t have went to the movies if it was cold – S’il faisaitfroid,nous n’irions pasau cinema.
Subjonctif
– Used when there is a phrase such as “It is a must that…” or “It is necessary that…”
– Take the ils form of the verb in present tense and remove the ENT, then add the endings: je: e, tu: es,
il/elle/on/qui: e, nous: ions, vous: iez, ils/elles: ent
– E.g. Il faut que tu joues les sports.
– Usually used with irregular verbs such as ALLER, AVOIR, FAIRE, etc.
– E.g. Il faut qu’on fasseles devoirs chaquejour.
– Memorize the conjugations of these verbs, they’re so irregular,there’s no way of findingany patterns

2. RADICALS
L’IMPARFAIT FUTUR SIMPLE SUBJONCTIF PLUS QUE
PARFAIT
CONDITIONNEL
PASSE
CONDITONNEL
PRESENT
JE
TU
IL/ELLE
NOUS
VOUS
ILS
ENDINGS
L’IMPARFAIT FUTUR SIMPLE SUBJONCTIF PLUS QUE
PARFAIT
CONDITIONNEL
PASSE
CONDITONNEL
PRESENT
JE
TU
IL/ELLE
NOUS
VOUS
ILS