French help, please?

Question

I'm a little stuck. Can someone tell me what these verb forms mean and how they will be used: Indicative: present, imperfect, past historic, future, perfect, pluperfect, past anterior, future perfect; Subjunctive: present imperfect, past, pluperfect; Conditional: present, past I and past II.
I know it's a lot, but...it's worth 12 points!

PS. I know what a couple mean, I just want to be sure. Pluperfect is when something has happened before in order to let another thing happen after it, right? For example: I stood, so I could walk. (Sat being the pluperfect).

PPS. Stood being the pluperfect, not sat!

Answer 1

Hello, I'm a language teacher, and happened to stumble on your question. Answer below... sorry, but can't do all the punctuation on qwerty keyboard.

The tenses in French are used as follows:

Present - I do, I am doing (je fais) to describe an action taking place now, or which takes place generally, or regularly.
eg: I play/am playing tennis - Je joue au tennis

Imperfect - I was doing (je faisais) to describe an action which was taking place, also to descibe past habits, and for descriptions in the past.
eg I was playing tennis when I heard the news - je jouais au tennis quand j'ai entendu les nouvelles. Or: I used to play tennis when I was a child - je jouais au tennis quand j'etais enfant.

Past historic - I did (je fis) used in literature, not everyday use.

Perfect - I have done, I did (j'ai fait) used to describe an action in the past. Most usual form of the past.
I played tennis, I have played tennis - j'ai joue au tennis (that e should have an accent)

Future perfect - I will have done (j'aurai fait) used to predict an action that will have taken place in the future
Eg: Next Friday I will have played tennis for the last time - Vendredi prochain j'aurais joue (+accent!) pour la derniere fois.

Conditional perfect - I would have done (j'aurais fait) used to describe a different possibility in the past
Eg: If I had knownI would have started playing at a younger age
Si j'avais su, j'aurais commence (+accent) a jouer plus jeune.

Pluperfect - I had done (j'avais fait) used to decribe an action which had happened before another action in the past. Eg: I won the game but I had not played tennis before that day- J'ai gagne (+accent) mais je n'avais jamais joue (+accent) avant ce jour la.

Conditional - I might do (je ferais) used to describe a hypothetical action. Eg: I might play tennis (je jouerais peut-etre au tennis)

Subjunctive - I were to (je fasse) used with certain constructions, rare in English, but does exist, therefore not easy to find a translatable example. Most common example in French is that subjunctive is always used after il faut que... (it is necessary, I must) Eg: I must do my homework - Il faut que je fasse mes
devoirs.

Any other terminology is just other terms for the same tenses! Actually there are more tenses in English because we have a continous tense (I am, have been, was, have been, will be, will have been doing..).

Hope this makes sense! Bon courage!

Answer 2

Daniel, Good luck. My English speaking son is going to a French speaking school. He is only 13 and it has been really hard but he is doing great. French conjugation is wicked hard! I wish I could help you, my son isn't available or I would ask him for you although now that I review your question I see stuff on there ie: pluperfect? that I know he has never seen. I would like to know what that is too. Best wishes in your studies

Answer 3

Present, you know. Things that are happening now. (Je parle) I speak.
Imperfect is a past tense, used for things that were continually happening. Used to describe settings - what was going on. (Je parlais) I was speaking.
Never heard of past historic.
Future has a couple of different tenses, but the immeadiate future you would just use aller+infinitive of the verb. (Je vais parler) I will speak.

Ah! I'm late for work. For more information (waaay better than mine) try going to about.com and searching for the French language part of the site. There are hundreds of pages there with detailed descriptions and examples.

Sorry.

Answer 4

Present is what is happening just now, perfect refers to a specific event rather to a general action (imperfect) compare "i went to the shop" (perfect) to "I used to go shopping" (imperfect). Conditional follows an "if" case or would even I would like. Past is something that has already happened, future something that is yet to happen, what are the other ones again?

Answer 5

Yeah I know ok breathe!!!! French verbs are a pain!!! I can't remember them all but I know that it all depends on what context you're using each one and the ending of the word and blah blah blah. Take it slow start out with present, then go into past, then future and THEN get into the harder ones. And let me tell you that if you're in French class... the best sentence to know is Je ne sais pas.... its I don't know lol!

Answer 6

Its a lot.

try this link for the basics, what you can't find there, use the english equivalents. Except for the subjuctives its the same (there is no subjunctive in English)

Just be glad that reflexive verbs are not included.

http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl_verbsintro.htm

ciao

Answer 7

I know that your teacher is silly because you'll never ever use half of these things. You need to know:
-Present de l'indicatif: I eat
-Imperatif: Eat!!!
-Conditionel: I would eat
-Futur: I will eat
- Passe compose: I have eaten
-Imparfait: I used to eat or I was eating
-Subjonctif: I would like THAT YOU EAT

And for the others tell your teacher it is completly useless. (I'm French)

Answer 8

quel temps fait-il? comment tu t'appelle quelle a la date de la annviversaire www.google.co.uk click on more then go right down to translate then type your verb

Answer 9

perfect is parfait (not the same meaning as the one we use for ice cream desserts).

Can't help you more than that.

Answer 10

if i knew i would be living in france. maybe you should ask a french person or your french teacher.