After introducing a lot of new ideas in recent posts I thought we could just pause for breath here. Today I’d like to show you the huge importance of knowing the various forms of the present tense in French, as a sort of preparation for going on to a really fascinating topic – so don’t just pause for breath, hold your breath!…
The present tense is really useful, not only in its own right but as a basis for other tenses and meanings. We’ve seen, for instance, how a simple form of the future can be made by using the present tense of “aller“; while the actual future tense is made up of a stem plus endings that pretty well equate to the present tense of “avoir“. Then, going back in time, the perfect tense is formed by using a past participle with the present tense of either “avoir” or “être”. It’s a bit ironcial that as we shift backwards and forwards in time it’s the use of the present tense which is actually saving you from being marooned in the present.
Not only that, but most of the six forms of the present tense will allow you to branch out into various other tenses. Let’s look at these forms, not precisely in order of occurrence, but just to illustrate their usefulness.
As we saw earlier, there are two basic patterns for the present tense. The overwhelming favourite is that of the “-er” verbs, ending “-e”, “-es”, “-e” in the singular; then there are a number of others, more or less irregular, which have an “-s”, “-s”, “-t” pattern. Now whichever type you are dealing with, knowing the first person singular will allow you to work out the second and third-person forms. That’s a good start.
After that you need to know the first person plural (the “nous” form). Again for “-er” verbs this is almost always simple, but for the other main category you often need to learn the form. Whatever it is, you can be almost certain that the “vous” form will have the same stem, merely changing the ending “-ons” to “-ez”. The handful of exceptions are admittedly important verbs, but they stand out like a sore thumb. And the other thing about learning the first person plural is that it gives you the stem for creating the imperfect tense – so that’s another good return on the investment.
The third person plural meanwhile provides the stem for the formation of the present subjunctive, which in many cases is identical in form to the basic indicative you started with. So all in all, you can see that the present radiates out, allowing you to make lots of other tenses.
Then, just to round things off, we have the second-person forms, “tu” and “vous”. Again as noted elsewhere, these will allow you to understand and express the imperative. You can now see, I hope, why I’m so keen on stressing the need to know the present tense of verbs, especially the first-person forms of singular and plural.
But there is another point I’ve mentioned here, and which leads on to what I think will be material for more than one new post – the use of “tu” and “vous”. Here I have a problem, which I’ll share with you. When I was a lecturer in French my job involved both teaching and research, and a good deal of that research was on the topic of “tu” and “vous” usage – that is, the reasons why French speakers use one form rather than the other, and the way that novelists or screenwriters exploit the subtleties. I even got into the area of how these forms are translated into English versions of novels, or the sub-titles of films. It was great fun – I was even getting paid for it! – and I published a number of articles on this topic, with several chapters of a potential book stored away at the time I changed career.
I tell you all this not to boast about it, but simply to explain why it’s going to be a difficult topic for a blog. I mean, how to reduce all that material, and all those references, to a simple guide matching the rest of these posts? I don’t know yet, but I’ll give it a go. I’ve always been intrigued by the topic – and I hope you will be “tu”!
French can't be difficult 