28.7: Part 1: 6 THE VERB: TENSE (LE VERBE: TEMPS)

6 THE VERB: TENSE (LE VERBE: TEMPS)

Note: The following discussion of terms refers to tenses that occur in the indicative mood. (See 7 and 7.1.)

The term "tense" refers to the way in which many languages, including English and French, indicate by the form of the verb what relative time period is under consideration in a sentence: present, past or future.

For present "time" French has just one "tense": the présent (English has simple present, emphatic present and progressive present).

For past time French has the passé composé (in form like our present perfect, in function/meaning like both our present perfect and preterite), the imparfait (only roughly like our past progressive), and the plus-que-parfait (very much like our pluperfect).

For future time it has a futur (simple) (like our "will" + infinitive), a futur antérieur (like our compound future), and—just as we do in English—French uses the verb "to go" + INFINITIVE very frequently to express the future.

Although there is no "progressive" form in French (no direct equivalent of "I am swimming" or "I was swimming"), one can express that notion with en train de (meaning, more or less, "in the process of").

Je suis en train de nager.	I am swimming.
J'étais en train de nager.	I was swimming.

6.1 Present Tense (Le présent de l'indicatif)

Forms

As is true for all tenses, each verb has six person-number forms for the present tense: 1st, 2nd and 3rd, singular and plural (corresponding to the subjects: je, tu, il/elle/on; nous, vous, ils/elles). Obviously the 3rd singular and 3rd plural verb forms also go with singular nouns and plural nouns respectively.

Although we traditionally speak of six different person-number forms, and there is some logic to doing so, it will become immediately apparent that, particularly in the spoken language, there are many fewer forms to learn to use. For example, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd singular, and 3rd plural all sound the same in je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent. (See the Pronunciation Section.)

The majority of so-called "irregular" verb forms are in the present tense. All the forms needed for this course are given in the verb tables and taken up frequently in the body of the text, with drills. It is vital that you use these forms correctly and often, in meaningful contexts/situations, if you wish to develop control of the language.

Function/Uses

a. The most obvious function of the present tense form is to indicate an action, state or condition in present time.

Il parle français.	He speaks French. (general present) He is speaking French. (at the moment) He does speak French. (assertion of current ability)
Elle est malade.	She is sick. (now)
Le train arrive.	The train is arriving. (coming in on the track right now)

Note that we have given some equivalents immediately above with the present progressive ("to be" + PRESENT PARTICIPLE) and the emphatic present ("do/does" + INFINITIVE). Never attempt to "translate" those English constructions into French. (As noted above, in the general introduction to TENSE, there is an idiom, en train de, that can be used to express the progressive aspect. See the last paragraph of Section 6.)

b. When used in the following kinds of constructions (with depuis and with il y а... que) the present tense still expresses an action or state going on at present (at the time of speech), but more precisely indicates an action that began at some point in the past and is still going on.

Je t'attends depuis vingt minutes.	I've been waiting for you for twenty minutes.
Il y a trois semaines que je n'ai pas de voiture.	I've been without a car for three weeks.
Depuis quand cherchez-vous cet homme?	How long have you been looking for this man?
Nous le cherchons depuis le mois d'août.	We've been looking for him since August.

c. In both English and French, the present tense form is frequently used to express future time, particularly in colloquial speech.

Je pars pour Paris demain.	I'm leaving for Paris tomorrow.
Il vient ce soir.	He's coming tonight.
J'arrive!	I'm on my way! (not yet there)

б.2 Past Tense (Les temps du passé)

All of the following sets of forms, in 6.2.1 through 6.2.5, indicate actions or states/conditions in past time. They differ in respect to relative time, and/or in respect to whether the speaker is referring to a completed action or an ongoing/repeated action or condition, and/or in respect to the standard use of the form in the spoken language as opposed to the written language. We'll point out the importance of each of these factors as we take up each tense-form.

6.2.1 Past Tense: (Passé composé)

Form

The passé composé is a compound verb form, composed of an auxiliary verb (the present tense of être or avoir) and the past participle of the main verb. Since it is an integral functional unit the two parts are usually found in immediate succession (e.g., J'ai fini mon travail; Il est parti pour Paris), but some negative particles and some adverbs can occur between the auxiliary and the past participle. In addition, if there is inversion with a subject pronoun, that subject pronoun is connected to the auxiliary (e.g., Est-il parti pour Paris?). You'll find examples of negatives and adverbs between the auxiliary and past participle in the following illustrations.

Function

The passé composé is the work horse of the past tense forms. It is used in both written and spoken French and regularly designates an action or state or condition as completed, not viewed as continuing or continuous (even though it may indeed have taken some time to complete or have been a condition for some time).

Examples

(Both of the following are completed actions.)

Il a fini ses devoirs.	He finished his homework.
Elle est partie hier.	She left yesterday.

(Weather is a condition and, of course, it was ongoing "yesterday," but the speaker in the following example sees the day and its weather as a unit, analogous to a "wrapped up" package.)

Il a fait beau hier.

It was a beautiful day yesterday.

(Again, in the following example, we have a past condition that continued for some time, but the speaker sees it as completed, as a total past unit.)

Elles ont été malades pendant trois jours.

They were sick for three days.

By far the most common use of the passé composé is to express an action completed in the past, as we will stress via the examples we give in separate sections on so-called "être," "avoir" and "reflexive" verbs.

a. Passé composé: "Avoir" Verbs

The large majority of verbs take avoir as the auxiliary for compound tenses (passé composé and others). These include all transitive verbs that are not reflexive as well as many intransitive verbs.

Examples of transitive "avoir" verbs:

Il a fini ses devoirs.	He finished his homework.
Nous n'avons pas regardé la TV.	We didn't watch TV.
J'ai compris la question.	I understood the question.

Examples of intransitive "avoir" verbs:

Nous avons souvent parlé de lui.	We often spoke about him.
Il a marché vers la porte.	He walked toward the door.

Note that the past participle in the avoir construction agrees in gender and number with a preceding direct object.

Nous avons souvent parlé de lui.	We often spoke about him.
Il a marché vers la porte.	He walked toward the door.

Note that the past participle in the avoir construction agrees in gender and number with a preceding direct object.

—Où sont mes clés?	Where are my keys?
—Je les ai vues sur la table.	I saw them on the table.
—Pourquoi m'as tu embrassée, Jean?	Why did you kiss me, John?
—Parce que je t'aime, Marie.	Because I love you, Mary.

b. Passé composé: "Être" Verbs

There is a small group of intransitive verbs that take être as the auxiliary. Note that not all intransitive verbs are "être" verbs, just a specific subset.

We have provided a chart on the inside back page to help you learn which verbs take être, but we prefer that (1) you recognize that the set includes verbs of motion to and from, plus some others that are figuratively related to that motion, plus the verb rester, "to remain," and (2) you use them enough to internalize the list without having to think of it as a list.

following is a list of verbs that regularly take être as the auxiliary in compound tenses.

aller	to go	partir	to leave
arriver	to arrive	passer	to pass, go by^6
descendre	to go down, get off	rentrer	to go back (home)
devenir	to become	rester	to remain, stay
entrer	to enter	retourner	to return (to a place)
monter	to go up, get on	revenir	to come back
mourir	to die	sortir	to go out
naître	to be born	tomber	to fall
		venir	to come

⁶ The verb passer has a number of meanings, and takes either être or avoir as the auxiliary according to the meaning. It takes être when it means "to pass by," as in Il est passé devant le café à trois heures. Among the meanings that go with avoir are "to take," as in J'ai passé l'examen ce matin, and "to play show," as in On a passé ce film au Ciné Beaubourg hier soir. See also the comment immediately following the list.

(Compounds of some of these verbs are also conjugated with être, as well as some less frequent verbs.)

Some of the so-called "être" verbs may be used transitively—usually with a slightly different meaning In such cases, they become "avoir" verbs.

Elle a descendu les bagages.	She brought down the luggage.
J'ai passé le week-end chez Michel.	I spent the weekend at Michael's.
Il a sorti un revolver de sa poche.	He took a revolver out of his pocket.

Note that the past participle of an "être" verb agrees in gender and number with the grammatical subject.

Jean est parti.

John left.

(Masculine singular subject, nothing added.)

Marie est partie.

Mary left.

(Feminine singular subject, add an e.)

Nous sommes allés au cinéma.

We went to the movies.

(One or more males included in the group; masculine plural subject, add an s.)

Elles sont sorties hier soir.

They went out last night.

(Feminine plural subject, add e and s.)

c. Passé composé: Reflexive Verbs (Verbes pronominaux)

All verbs used reflexively (many verbs are regularly reflexive; others may be used in reflexive constructions) take être as the auxiliary in the passé composé.

Elle s'est levée à six heures.	She got up at six o'clock.
Je me suis dépêché.	I hurried up.
Nous nous sommes amusés.	We had a good time.
Je me suis dit qu'il fallait partir.	I told myself that I'd better leave.

Note that the past participle of a reflexive verb agrees in gender and number with the preceding direct object. In other words, although the auxiliary is être, the agreement rule is the same as that for avoir verbs.⁷ Of course, the direct object is frequently the reflexive pronoun (which represents the subject), as in the first example. However, that is not always the case, as you see in the second example.

⁷ This is an oversimplification, but we feel it is sufficient for a first-year textbook.

Elle s'est lavée.	She washed (herself).
Elle s'est lavé les mains.	She washed her hands. (direct object follows, thus no agreement)
Nous nous sommes bien amusés.	We had a good time.

6.2.2 Past Tense: Imparfait

Form

The imperfect tense is formed very simply: the inflections (endings) are the same for all verbs

-ais	-ions
-ais	-iez
-ait	-aient

and are attached to the stem of the first plural form of the present tense.

Examples

Nous parlons → parl- → vous parliez

Nous finissons → finiss- → tu finissais

Nous avons → av- → j'avais

Nous écrivons → écriv- → elles écrivaient

The only exception is the verb être, which has a stem closely related to the infinitive.

être → ét- → il était

Function

The imperfect tense is used when describing an action going on in the past, repeated in the past (habitual), or describing a state/condition in progress in the past.

(At this level of French, it is generally best to use the imperfect regularly for state/condition in the past, even though—as we mentioned in the section on the passé composé—one may also use the passé composé for states/conditions, given the appropriate context and meaning.)

(past action, in progress when something else happened)

Je prenais une douche quand le téléphone a sonné.

I was taking a shower when the phone rang.

(past condition, seen as ongoing)

Il neigeait ce matin.

It was snowing this morning.

(past condition—childhood—and past habitual action)

Quand j'étais enfant, nous allions tous les jeudis au Jardin du Luxembourg.

When I was a child, we used to go every Thursday to the Luxembourg Gardens.

6.2.3 Past Tense: Passé simple

For our purposes, the passé simple is a tense form that must be recognized in reading French—and that's all. You will not be expected to produce it: you can legitimately use the imperfect and passé composé in all the written exercises we have prepared for you. The passé simple is essentially never used in spoken French and is appropriately referred to as the "book tense" or "literary tense". It is found in literature, in newspaper and journal/magazine articles, and in formal expository prose (manuals, essays, official documents).

Form

A "simple" or synthetic tense, the passé simple is formed with a stem (usually the same as the past participle stem) and a set of endings. We provide full listings in the verb tables for all of the verbs that you are likely to meet in your readings at this level.

We feel it is not particularly efficient use of your time to try to memorize the sets of endings or stems for the passé simple, particularly since we will not ask you to produce them. We provide full lists of the forms in the verb section, and, as you refer to those lists when you read, you will find it comparatively easy to recognize the more common verbs. The most common sets of endings are:

-ai	-is	-us
-as	-is	-us
-a	-it	-ut
-âmes	-îmes	-ûmes
-âtes	-îtes	-ûtes
-èrent	-irent	-urent

6.2.4 Past Tense: Plus-que-parfait

The plus-que-parfait is "more than perfect", i.e., one step further back in time, and corresponds very closely to the English pluperfect (past perfect) tense.

Form

It is a compound tense, like the passé composé, with the auxiliary verb in the imparfait.

Function

a. The plus-que-parfait refers to an action that took place before another past action that is mentioned in the sentence (or has just been mentioned in an ongoing conversation).

Elle était déjà partie quand nous sommes arrivés.

She had already left when we arrived.

b. It is also used regularly in the "if-clause" of a contrary-to-fact conditional sentence. See also Section 26.4.

Si j'avais compris votre question, j'aurais pu y répondre.

If I had understood your question, I would have been able to answer it.

6.2.5 Past Tense: Passé immédiat

Properly speaking, this is not a tense, but an idiomatic structure. When one wants to express the fact that something has been done very recently, just before the moment of speaking, one uses the construction venir + de + INFINITIVE, with venir in the present tense.

—Où est Jean?	Where's John?
—Il vient d'arriver.	He just arrived.
—Quand vas-tu ouvrir la lettre?	When are you going to open the letter?
—Mais je viens de le faire.	I've just done so.

Not surprisingly, if you change the tense of venir to the imperfect, you produce a construction that expresses that an action had been completed just before another past event.

Je venais de rentrer quand le téléphone a sonné.

I had just come back in when the telephone rang.

6.3 Future Tense

There are three constructions that regularly express that an action or state will take place/be in effect at some future time.

6.3.1 Future Tense: Futur (simple)

Form

All verbs, without exception, take the same set of endings for the simple future tense, and those endings correspond to the present tense of the verb avoir (-ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont). The future stem for all verbs ends in an -r and for many verbs (all the so-called regular verbs, as well as many others) the stem is simply the infinitive, as you see in the examples and in the verb tables.

(We will not emphasize production of proper future forms (6.3.1 and 6.3.2) in verb tests or other exercises, since the immediate future (6.3.3) is generally sufficient for colloquial French, but you should become familiar with the forms as you see them in reading and find them in dictations.)

Function

Aside from the general purpose of expressing future time, the futur is used regularly in two sequence-of-tense constructions.

a. Whenever the main clause expresses future time (whether the verb is in the future tense or not), the verb in any dependent clause that begins with quand, lorsque, dès que, or aussitôt que must be in the future tense.

Je le lui dirai quand il arrivera.

I'll tell him when he gets here.

b. In si- clause constructions (See also Section 26.4), when the verb in the si- clause is in the present tense, the verb in the result clause must be in the present, or the imperative, or the future tense.

Si tu m'accompagnes, je te montrerai mon jardin.

If you come with me, I'll show you my garden.

6.3.2 Future Tense: Futur antérieur

The future anterior (compound future), like its equivalent in English, is still used by many native speakers who have good control of the standard language, but is not always found in constructions that "require" it according to traditional rules. We will not ask you to produce it.

Form

Like all the compound tenses, the futur antérieur is composed of an auxiliary (être or avoir: same distribution as explained in detail for the passé composé) plus a past participle. The auxiliary in this case is in the futur simple.

Function

The futur antérieur is found principally in subordinate clauses introduced by the conjunctions dès que and aussitôt que and refers to an action that will have been completed before some other (future) action takes place. As mentioned above, we will not ask you to produce this verb tense.

6.3.3 Future Tense: Futur proche

This is the most common way to express future time. It is the "straight" future, the form most often used in simple sentences. Although it is also used in more complex sentences and in subordinate clauses, the futur simple is more often found in subordinate clauses introduced by quand or lorsque.

Form

The verb aller in the present tense plus the INFINITIVE constitutes the "near future" construction.

Function

The futur proche construction has nearly the same range of uses as its English equivalent:

Je vais fermer la porte.	I'm going to close the door.
Vas-tu le voir demain?	Are you going to see him tomorrow?
Ils ne vont pas partir.	They aren't going to leave.

6.4 Conditional Tense

The conditional "tense" is sometimes designated as the conditional "mood". At other times, it is referred to as the past of the future. Wel l continue to call it a tense, since that is the tradition in American textbooks. You'll see by the way it is formed and by one of its functions (in indirect discourse) why it is called the past of the future; you will see by its other functions why it is considered a mood.

6.4.1 Conditional Tense: Conditionnel

Form

The conditionnel is formed by taking the same stem that is used for the future and adding the set of endings for the imperfect (-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient).

Two examples (there are more in the FUNCTION section):

je parlerais	je ferais
tu parlerais	tu ferais
on parlerait	elle ferait
nous parlerions	nous ferions
vous parleriez	vous feriez
ils parleraient	elles feraient

Function

The conditional has three different functions or meanings, each significant and fairly common, so it is important to be able to comprehend it and then use it in the appropriate contexts.

a. It is used with verbs of volition (vouloir, aimer) to soften a request. (It's probably best to learn this simply as a vocabulary item, which is why we introduce it early in the text.)

Je voudrais partir maintenant, papa.	I'd like to leave now, Dad.
Pourriez-vous me passer le sel, s'il vous plaît.	Could you pass me the salt, please.

b. It is used in past indirect discourse to replace what would be a future tense form in direct discourse (see Section 26.3).

DIRECT DISCOURSE:	Je partirai demain. I'll leave tomorrow.
INDIRECT DISCOURSE, present:	Il dit qu'il partira demain. He says he'll leave tomorrow.
INDIRECT DISCOURSE, past:	Il a dit qu'il partirait demain. He said that he'll leave tomorrow.
Elle a répondu qu'elle m'aiderait à le faire.	She replied that she would help me to do it.
J'ai crié que je ne le ferais jamais plus.	I cried out that I would never do it again.

c. It is used in so-called "conditional" sentences, in the result clause when the "if-clause" is in the imperfect tense. This is a sequence-of-tense rule that you can depend on. (See also Section 26.4.)

"Si" IMPARFAIT, (result) CONDITIONNEL:

Si j'avais dix mille dollars, j'irais au Japon.	If I had ten thousand dollars, I'd go to Japan.
Tu ne me dirais pas cela si tu m'aimais.	You wouldn't say that to me if you loved me.

6.4.2 Conditional Tense: Conditionnel passé

As usual, the compound tense form mirrors the simple form in both form and function. It takes the conditional tense of the auxiliary (être or avoir, following the same rules as for the passé composé) plus a past participle. It is less common in the first two functions (a. and b., above), but occurs fairly frequently in conditional sentences (c. above).

Si tu étais arrivé a l'heure, tu aurais pu finir l'examen.

If you had arrived on time, you would have been able to finish the exam.