French Grammar
Click on the French expressions to hear pronunciations.
Click on the French expressions to hear pronunciations.
| FRENCH | ENGLISH | |
|---|---|---|
| Le présent | The present tense | |
| What is true at the moment | ||
| Je suis étudiant m. | I am a student. | |
| Ça a l’air de marcher. | It seems to be working. | |
| What happens regularly | ||
| Je me lève à six heures du matin. | I get up at six in the morning. | Ça passe souvent. | It happens a lot. |
| What is happening now | ||
| J'attends. | I'm waiting. | |
| Qu'est-ce que tu cherches ? | What are you looking for? | |
| What is going to happen in the near future | ||
| On mange dans une minute. | We are eating in a minute. | |
| Je vais à la banque. | I'm going to the bank. | |
| Avec le mariage, tu vas avoir le temps ? | With the wedding, are you going to have time? | |
| Indicatif imparfait | Past, past continuous or habitual past | |
| what things were like and how people felt in the past | ||
| J'étais comme ça étant jeune. | I was like that when I was young. | |
| C'était drôle. | It was funny. | |
| J'étais content que ce soit fini. | I was glad it was over. | |
| Je le voyais pas comme ça. | I didn't see it like that. | |
| Je savais pas. | I didn't know. | |
| La sonnette marchait pas. | The doorbell didn't work. | |
| J'en étais sûre f ! | I knew it! | |
| what used to happen or what you used to do regularly in the past | ||
| On allait à l’église tous les dimanches. | We used to go to church every Sunday. | |
| On jouait ensemble quand on était jeunes. | We used to play together when we were young. | |
| J’aimais les choses aigres. | I used to like sour things. | |
| Quand j’étais jeune, on jouait dehors tout le temps. | When I was young, we used to play outside all the time. | |
| On allait en vacances un mois en été. | We used to vacation one month in summer. | |
| what was happening or true when something else took place | ||
| Je prenais une douche quand tu as appelé. | I was having a shower when you called. | |
| J'allais me faire un café, tu en veux ? | I was going to make myself a coffee, do you want one? | |
| J'allais y venir. | I was going to come. | |
| - J'allais y venir. | - I was going to get to that. (I was going to talk about it.) | |
| Ça allait là ? | Was it going okay there? | |
| Indicatif futur | Future tense | |
| Ça ira. | It will be fine. | |
| Ça s'arrêtera jamais. /aʀɛtʀa/ | It will never stop. (distant future) | |
| - Ça ne va jamais s'arrêter. /aʀete/ | It's never going to stop. (immediate future) | |
| Ça se reproduira plus. | It will happen again. | |
| Je serai là. | I will be there. | |
| Ça restera entre nous. | It will stay between us. | |
| Je ferai tout pour vous aide. | I will do everything to help you. | |
| Il sera bientôt là. | He will be here soon. | |
| Futur proche | Near future | |
| aller + verbe à l'infinitif | ||
| Je vais me coucher. | I'm going to bed. | |
| On va tous partir. | We are all going to leave. | |
| Je sais pas si ça va marcher. | I don't know if it's going to work. | |
| On va traverser ça ensemble. /tʀavɛʀse/ | We are going to get through this together. | |
| Tu vas acheter un ticket de loto? /tikɛ/ /lɔto/ | Are you going to buy a lotto ticket? | |
| Ça va aller. | It's going to be okay. | |
| Tu vas être en retard. | You're going to be late. | |
| Je ne vais pas te laisser tomber. | I'm not going to let you down. | |
| Il va l’appeler. | He's going to call him. | |