The present tense: How to form and use it in French?

The French present tense is used to talk about what is happening now (among other things!) and it is formed using various sets of conjugation endings depending on the verb category and whether the verb is regular or irregular. French grammar has three categories of verbs in the present tense: verbes du premier groupe, du deuxième groupe, and du troisième groupe, which stand for first, second, and third group conjugations. The first group gathers all -er verbs, the second all regular -ir verbs, and the last one is for all the misfits!

The present tense is a useful tense to master, as you will need it as a base for many other tenses and moods, such as the French imperfect or the subjunctive present in French. If you want to know the essential rules of the French present tense, including endings, stem changes, and pronunciation, along with how to use and translate the present tense, then this article is for you!

À vos marques ! Prêts ? Partez ! (meaning Ready? Steady? Go!)

To form the present tense with French -er verbs (first group verbs), you will need to add the appropriate -er present tense conjugation endings to the verb stem. For regular -er verbs, the stem is the infinitive form without -er. Unlike in English, verb endings change for every subject pronoun in French. In the table below, you can find the present tense conjugation endings for -er verbs:

Let’s try conjugating the joyful verb rigoler (meaning to laugh) in the present tense:

You may think: “Hang on, what about aller?" While it does end in -er, it is not a regular verb! We’ll cover this later.

To form the present tense with -ir verbs in French, you will need to learn the -ir verb conjugation endings. However, -ir verbs are a bit trickier than -er verbs in French, because some of them are regular (the second group verbs), while others are irregular (technically third group verbs). We’ll begin with the easier regular -ir verbs first.

To form the French present tense with other third group verbs and irregular verbs, you’ll again need to memorize some new conjugation endings for -re verbs and irregular verbs (like venir and tenir from above). For verbes du troisième groupe, you need to keep in mind that time and practice will help, and you can always use the French present progressive être en train de as a cop out! We’ve already covered the irregular -ir verbs that are a part of this third group. Here, I will give you rules and tips for the most useful third group -re verbs and the top totally irregular verbs.

Use the present tense in French to describe states of being, recurring actions, facts, and current (or even future and past) events. The good news is that when you would use the simple present in English, you are likely to use the present indicative in French. Let’s look at these uses.

• States of being, describing living and non-living beings

  Damien est sympa. Il a beaucoup d’amis.

  Translation: Damien is nice. He has a lot of friends.

  Le ville est pittoresque.

  Translation: The town is quaint.

• Recurring actions

  Je fais du yoga tous les jeudis.

  Translation: I do yoga every Thursday.

• Facts which are always true

  Les chauve-souris chassent la nuit.

  Translation: Bats hunt at night.

• Current and even some future and past events!

  Aujourd’hui, je travaille au bureau.

  Translation: Today, I work at the office.

  Literally: lit. (lit.) Today, I am working at the office.

However, you can also use the present tense to describe events in the past or even in the future!

• PAST:

  Et là, je sors et je le vois ; je lui dis : Qu’est-ce que tu fais ?!

  Translation: And then, I went out, saw him, and asked: “What are you doing?!”

• FUTURE:

  Demain, je range la maison.

  Translation: Tomorrow, I am tidying up the house.

As you can see from these two examples above, the French present tense can often be translated slightly differently in English (such as in the past or future tense)! Indeed, there are other situations when you’ll need the present tense in French, where you would use different tenses in English. For instance, Je lis can mean "I read," "I'm reading," or even "I do read" in English. Let’s review how to translate the French present tense into English.

To translate the French present tense in English, you’ll need to understand all of the different places the present tense can be used in French. When you start learning more about grammar, you sometimes realize subtle and gigantic differences between languages! Here, we’ll compare the linguistic differences between English and French by studying the various ways the French present tense can be translated in English.

Right! Now that you know when to use the present tense and all its alternatives in English, let’s review how to use the present tense with negation, reflexive verbs, and questions before we wrap up!

Sometimes, sentences using the French present tense are complicated a bit with added elements like negation, reflexive verbs, or question words. We’ll take a quick look at each!

• French negation with the present tense

  Negation phrases like ne...pas go before and after the verb in the present tense.

  Je ne parle pas portugais.

  Translation: I don't speak Portuguese.

  Elle ne regarde jamais la télé.

  Translation: She never watches TV.

• French reflexive verbs in the present tense

  A reflexive verb has a reflexive pronoun because the person is doing the action to themselves. Reflexive pronouns are the equivalent of words in English like “myself.” The same verb can be both reflexive and not. Let’s take réveiller (meaning to wake) as an example: you can both wake somebody else up and wake yourself up.

  Il réveille ses enfants.

  Translation: He wakes up his children.

  In the present tense, the reflexive pronoun goes before the conjugated verb:

  Il se réveille tôt.

  Translation: He wakes up early.

• Forming questions in French in the present tense

  Now let’s see how to express the present tense “Do you…?” in French! There are three ways of asking questions in French, from informal to very formal. The words may be shuffled around, but the use of present indicative remains unchanged. Here are some examples in order of formality (from informal to formal):

  Tu veux du café ?
  Est-ce que tu veux du café ?
  Veux-tu du café ?
  

  Translation: Do you want coffee?

  There you are, the uses of present indicative have no more secrets for you! Below you’ll find the main rules to remember. À bientôt !

When using the present tense in French, keep the following rules in mind:

• French verbs are conjugated for every personal pronoun and have different endings for each.

  • For most -er verbs, remove -er and add the endings e, es, e, ons, ez, ent.

  • For most -ir verbs, remove -ir and add the endings is, is, it, issons, issez, issent.

  • For most -re verbs, remove -ir and add the endings s, s, 🚫 , ons, ez, ent.

  • There are many irregular verbs, some of which have patterns you can memorize to help you!

• List item content

• Generally, the present indicative in French = simple present in English.

• However, sometimes English will use different tenses, whereas the present is still used in French. This makes French easier because you have fewer tenses to remember!

  • When you want to create suspense or a sense of urgency, you can use the present tense for close past and close future actions.

  • The English “do” to emphasize or ask questions corresponds to the French present indicative, even though in French we do not explicitly include the word “do,” as it appears in English.

  • When you have been doing something for a while and are still doing it (the present perfect in English) → use the present tense in French with depuis.

  • When you want to insist on the fact that an action is happening right now (the present progressive in English) → use être en train de + infinitive, which is the equivalent of "be + [verb] + -ing" in English.

  • For reflexive verbs, the reflexive pronoun goes before the conjugated verb, and the negations ne … pas (meaning not), ne … jamais (meaning never) go before and after the verb.

Now it’s time to practice the French present tense! Let's go!