Present Tense - what is happening now / what usually happensMost regular verbs follow these patterns:

Verbs ending in –er e.g. regarder: to watch

je regarde nous regardonstu regardes vous regardezil/elle/on regarde ils/elles regardent

Verbs ending in –re e.g. attendre: to wait

J’attends nous attendonstu attends vous attendezil/elle/on attend ils/elles attendent

Verbs ending in –ir e.g. finir: to finish

je finis nous finissonstu finis vous finissezil/elle/on finit ils/elles finissent

Irregular verbs follow their own patterns and must be learnt separately

The perfect tense is formed as follows:

An auxiliary verb (avoir or être) +

The past participle of the main verb

Regular verbs form their past participles as follows:

Verbs ending in –er: take off –er and add ée.g regardé – watched

Verbs ending in –re : take off –re and add ue.g attendu – waited

Verbs ending in –ir : take off –ir e.g. fini: finished

Irregular verbs need to be learnt separately

Perfect Tense (1) – something which happened in the past

Perfect Tense (2) The majority of verbs form their perfect tense with avoir:J’ai nous avonstu as vous avezil/elle/on a ils/elles ont

e.g J’ai visité le musée – I visited the museum

13 verbs form their perfect tense with être (usually involving movement / change of state):Je suis nous sommestu es vous êtesil/elle/on est ils/elles sont

e.g Je suis allé au cinéma – I went to the cinema

Reflexive verbs also use êtree.g Je me suis couché(e) – I went to bed

N.B. With être verbs in the perfet tense, add –e to the past participle forfeminine, add –s for plural and add –es for feminine plural

Imperfect Tense

The imperfect tense can be used to describe what things were like in the

past, what was happening at a given moment and what used to happen

e.g Je regardais – I was watching / I used to watch

To form the imperfect tense you take the ‘nous’ form of the present tense, remove the ‘ons’ and add the endings.Imperfect tense endings are as follows:

Je ais nous ionstu ais vous iezil/elle/on ait ils/elles aient

e.g J’avais un chien – I used to have a dog

For être (to be) the imperfect endings are added onto the stem ét-e.g J’ étais triste – I was sad C’était chouette – It was great

Pluperfect Tense

The pluperfect tense is used to report events that took place before another

event in the past / something that had happened. It is made up of 2 parts:

The imperfect tense of avoir or être +

The past participle of the main verb

e.g. J’avais donné - I had given / J’ étais allé - I had gone

Useful phrases to learn:J’avais déjà vu le film

Nous avons passé les vacances dans un camping en France. Mon père avait réservé un bon emplacement

Le jour de mon anniversiare j’ai reçu l’argent que mes parents m’avaient promis

I had already seen the film

We spent the holidays at a campsite in France. My father had booked a good pitch

On my birthday I got the money that my parents had promised me

Near Future Tense

This is used to talk about what is going to happen in the futuree.g. je vais regarder

It is formed with:The present tense of the verb aller

+ The infinitive of the main verb

e.g Je vais aller au cinéma – I’m going to the cinema Elle va avoir un bébé - she’s going to have a baby

allerje vais nous allonstu vas vous allezil/elle/on va ils/elles vont

Future TenseThis is used to talk about what will happen in the futuree.g. je regarderai

It is formed by adding the future tense ending onto the future stem

Future tense endings:je –ai nous -onstu -as vous -ezil/elle/on -a ils/elles -ont

Future tense stems:For regular -er and –ir verbs the stem is the same as the inifintiveFor regular -re verbs the stem is formed by taking off the final –e

e.g tu visiteras – you will visit

For irregular verbs the stems need to be learnt separatelye.g. aller: ir- / être : ser / avoir: aur / faire: fer

e.g nous aurons – you will have

Conditional TenseThis is used when you want to say “would”.The conditional tense is formed with the same endings as the imperfect tense, however,the endings are added to the future stem.

e.g Je donnerais – I would give Je finirais – I would finish Je vendrais – I would sell

N.B leave off the final –e of the infinitive when using re verbs

Irregular verbs examples:

aller: J’irais – I would goavoir: J’aurais – I would haveêtre: Je serais – I would befaire: Je ferais – I would do / makevenir: Je viendrais – I would givevoir: Je verrais – I would seevouloir: Je voudrais – I would like

Useful phrases to learn:

Je voudrais aller en France en étéSi j’avais de l’argent, j’irais en France

I would like to go to France in the summerIf I had some money I would go to France