French verb tenses confuse English speakers more than almost anything else in the language. Not because there are too many — English has plenty — but because the mapping between French and English tenses is not one-to-one.
This guide covers the tenses you'll actually use in everyday French, when to use them, and where English speakers consistently go wrong.
Related answer: French grammar explainer from real sentences. To turn verb tense confusion into a personal practice loop, see turn daily French into personalized learning material.
The present tense (le présent)
French present tense works like English present tense for facts and habitual actions:
Je parle français. → I speak French.
Elle travaille tous les jours. → She works every day.
But here's the key difference: French uses the simple present where English would use the present continuous.
Je mange. → I eat or I am eating.
French doesn't have a required progressive tense the way English does. That said, you can express an ongoing action explicitly with être en train de + infinitive:
Je suis en train de manger. → I am (in the middle of) eating.
This construction is common in spoken French when you want to emphasise that something is happening right now, but it's not required — the simple present covers both meanings in most contexts.
How to form it
For regular -er verbs (the most common), remove the -er and add:
| Subject | Ending | Example (parler) |
|---|---|---|
| je | -e | je parle |
| tu | -es | tu parles |
| il/elle | -e | il parle |
| nous | -ons | nous parlons |
| vous | -ez | vous parlez |
| ils/elles | -ent | ils parlent |
Note: the final -e, -es, -ent endings are all silent. Je parle, tu parles, and ils parlent all sound identical.
The two past tenses
This is where most English speakers hit a wall. French has two main past tenses and choosing the wrong one is a very common error.
Passé composé — completed actions
Use passé composé for actions that are finished, have a clear endpoint, or happened a specific number of times:
J'ai mangé une pizza. → I ate a pizza. (done, finished)
Elle est allée au marché. → She went to the market.
Nous avons vu ce film trois fois. → We have seen that film three times.
Formation: avoir or être (present) + past participle
Most verbs use avoir:
j'ai parlé, tu as parlé, il a parlé...
A specific set of verbs (movement/state verbs + all reflexive verbs) use être:
je suis allé(e), tu es allé(e), il est allé...
When using être, the past participle usually agrees with the subject in gender and number:
Elle est partie. (feminine, singular)
Ils sont partis. (masculine, plural)
Exception — reflexive verbs: the participle agrees with the subject only when the reflexive pronoun is the direct object. When a direct object follows the verb, there is no agreement:
Elle s'est lavée. (she washed herself — agreement, se is the direct object)
Elle s'est lavé les mains. (she washed her hands — no agreement, les mains is the direct object, se is indirect)
Imparfait — ongoing states and habitual past actions
Use imparfait for:
- Background states: what things were like
- Habitual actions: what used to happen
- Ongoing actions that were interrupted
Quand j'étais enfant, je jouais au foot tous les weekends.
→ When I was a child, I used to play football every weekend.
Il pleuvait quand je suis sorti.
→ It was raining when I went out.
(imparfait for the background state, passé composé for the completed action)
Formation: Take the nous present form, remove -ons, add: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient
nous parlons → parl- → je parlais, tu parlais, il parlait...
Major exception — être: its nous form is nous sommes, but the imparfait stem is irregular: j'étais, tu étais, il était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils étaient. Do not form it from somm-.
The key distinction
| Passé composé | Imparfait |
|---|---|
| Completed action | Ongoing state / background |
| Happened once, specifically | Happened habitually |
| Interrupting action | Action being interrupted |
| J'ai dormi 8 heures. | Je dormais quand... |
The future tenses
Simple future (futur simple)
Used for things that will happen, plans, and predictions:
Demain, je parlerai à mon chef. → Tomorrow, I will speak to my boss.
Formation: Infinitive + the endings -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont
For -er and -ir verbs, attach directly to the infinitive:
parler → je parlerai, tu parleras, il parlera, nous parlerons, vous parlerez, ils parleront
For -re verbs, drop the final -e first, then add endings:
vendre → vendr- → je vendrai, tu vendras, il vendra...
Irregular stems (must memorise): être → ser-, avoir → aur-, aller → ir-, faire → fer-, vouloir → voudr-
Near future (futur proche)
For things about to happen or firmly planned:
Je vais manger. → I'm going to eat. / I'm about to eat.
Formation: aller (present) + infinitive — identical to English "going to" structure.
This is the most natural-sounding future in spoken French. Native speakers use futur proche far more than futur simple in everyday conversation.
The conditional (le conditionnel)
For polite requests and hypothetical situations — equivalent to English "would":
Je voudrais un café. → I would like a coffee. (polite ordering)
Si j'avais de l'argent, j'achèterais une maison. → If I had money, I would buy a house.
Formation: Futur simple stem + imparfait endings (-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient)
je parlerais, tu parlerais, il parlerait...
Common mistakes to avoid
1. Confusing passé composé and imparfait
J'avais mangé (I had eaten — wrong for simple past) vs. J'ai mangé (I ate — correct)
2. Forgetting être verbs in passé composé
The DR MRS VANDERTRAMP mnemonic helps: Devenir, Revenir, Mourir, Retourner, Sortir, Venir, Aller, Naître, Descendre, Entrer, Rentrer, Tomber, Rester, Arriver, Monter, Partir, Passer — these use être when intransitive (no direct object).
Important exception: several of these verbs switch to avoir when used transitively (with a direct object), and the meaning shifts:
- Elle est sortie. (She went out — intransitive, être)
- J’ai sorti les clés. (I took out the keys — transitive, avoir)
- Il est monté. (He went up — intransitive, être)
- J’ai monté la valise. (I brought the suitcase up — transitive, avoir)
The verbs most commonly affected: sortir, monter, descendre, rentrer, retourner, passer.
3. Using futur simple where futur proche sounds more natural
In conversation, je vais partir sounds far more natural than je partirai for something happening soon.
See these tenses in action — start with your level and interests, or paste any French sentence into Apprendr and get a grammar breakdown that identifies exactly which tense is being used, why it appears there, and how to review the pattern later.