Le présent: the present tense in French grammar

When to use le présent

We use the French present tense to express:

• facts and ongoing situations in the present

Example:

Le garçon s’appelle Félix.The boy is called Félix.

• actions that happen once, multiple times or never in the present

Example:

Tous les mardis, il va à l’entraînement de football.He goes to football training every Tuesday..

• a future action that is already planned or agreed upon (requires a specific future time indicator)

Example:

Mardi prochain à 14 heures, son équipe a un match important.His team has an important match next Tuesday at 2 o’clock.

• the duration of actions that started in the past and are ongoing in the present.
  Note: French uses the present tense to express this idea, but English talks about duration using the present perfect simple or continuous tenses.

Example:

Il joue au football depuis cinq ans.He’s been playing football for five years..

here il joue = he’s been playing or he’s played

How to conjugate the present tense in French

To conjugate French verbs in the present tense, we remove the infinitive ending (-er, -ir or -re) and add the following endings:

-er Verbs

The table below shows the present tense conjugation of -er verbs:

Spelling Rules and Exceptions

• For verbs ending in -ger, we add an e before the letter o in the nous form in order to preserve the pronunciation of the g.

Example:

mangereat - je mange, tu manges, il/elle/on mange, nous mangeons, vous mangez, ils/elles mangent

• For verbs ending in -cer, the c becomes ç before the letter o in the nous form in order to preserve pronunciation.

Example:

lancerthrow - je lance, tu lances, il/elle/on lance, nous lançons, vous lancez, ils/elles lancent

• For verbs ending in -yer, the y becomes an i in the singular forms as well as in the 3_rd person plural. (For verbs ending in -ayer, we can write either i or y.)

Examples:

envoyersend - j'envoie, tu envoies, il envoie, nous envoyons, vous envoyez, ils/elles envoient

payerpay - je paye/paie

• For many verbs that end in -eler or -eter, the final consonant is doubled before a silent e.
  (Exceptions: acheterbuy, décelerdiscover, gelerfreeze, haleterpant, harcelerharass, modelermodel, pelerpeel)

Examples:

jeterthrow away – il jette

appelercall – il appelle

(but: acheter - j'achète)

• If the final syllable of the word stem contains an e or é, we give it a grave accent (accent grave) in its conjugated forms (apart from the 1_st and 2_nd person plural).

Example:

peserweigh - je pèse, tu pèses, il/elle/on pèse, nous pesons, vous pesez, ils/elles pèsent

acheterbuy - j'achète, tu achètes, il/elle/on achète, nous achetons, vous achetez, ils/elles achètent

cédergive in - je cède, tu cèdes, il/elle/on cède, nous cédons, vous cédez, ils/elles cèdent

• Remember: the verb aller is irregular.

Example:

allergo - je vais, tu vas, il/elle/on va, nous allons, vous allez, ils/elles vont

Type 1 -ir Verbs

The majority of -ir verbs belong to type 1, which means that the plural forms add -iss- before the present tense endings:

Many common verbs are conjugated in this way: applaudirapplaud, choisirchoose, divertiramuse, fleurirbloom, grandirgrow, grossirput on weight, guérircure, haïrhate, maigrirlose weight, nourrirnourish/feed, obéirobey, pâlirgo pale, punirpunish, ralentirslow down, remplir(re)fill, réjouircelebrate, réunirmeet, réussirsucceed, rougirblush, saisirgrasp, vieillirto age, etc.

Type 2 -ir Verbs

Type 2 -ir verbs can be divided into two kinds: verbs that are conjugated in the same way as -er verbs, and verbs that are conjugated with -s/-s/-t in the singular forms

*Other verbs that follow the same conjugation include: accueillirwelcome, couvrircover, cueillirgather, découvrirdiscover, ouvriropen, souffrirsuffer, etc.

**Other verbs that follow the same conjugation include: courirrun, fuirrun away, mentirlie, partirleave, sentirfeel, servirserve, sortirgo out, etc.

Note: the verbs venir and tenir are completely irregular.

Examples:

venircome - je viens, tu viens, il/elle/on vient, nous venons, vous venez, ils/elles viennent

tenirhold - je tiens, tu tiens, il/elle/on tient, nous tenons, vous tenez, ils/elles tiennent

-re Verbs

Regular -re verbs are conjugated as follows:

* The following verbs are conjugated in the same way as construire: conduiredrive, cuirecook, déduirededuce, détruiredestroy, instruireinstruct, introduireintroduce, nuireharm, produireproduce, reproduirereproduce, réduirereduce, séduireseduce, traduiretranslate.

** The following verbs are conjugated in the same way as vivre: suivrefollow, poursuivrechase, revivrerelive, survivresurvive.

Spelling Rules & Exceptions

• Verbs ending in -aître (traditional spelling) or -aitre (official spelling since 1990) such as connaître/connaitreknow, paraître/paraitreappear, naître/naitrebe born and their variations such as reconnaître/reconnaitrerecognise, disparaître/disparaitredisappear, renaître/renaitrebe reborn are conjugated as follows:

  Example:

  connaîtreknow – je connais, tu connais, il/elle/on connaît, nous connaissons, vous connaissez, ils/elles connaissent

• Many verbs that end in -ire (boiredrink, croirebelieve, diresay, écrirewrite, fairedo/make, lireread, plaireplease, rirelaugh ...) are irregular and change their stem in the plural forms. There is no general rule to learn the conjugations of these verbs, it’s best to learn them by heart.

  Examples:

  boiredrink - je bois, tu bois, il/elle/on boit, nous buvons, vous buvez, ils/elles boivent

  croirebelieve - je crois, tu crois, il/elle/on croit, nous croyons, vous croyez, ils/elles croient

  écrirewrite - j’écris, tu écris, il/elle/on écrit, nous écrivons, vous écrivez, ils/elles écrivent

  lireread - je lis, tu lis, il/elle/on lit, nous lisons, vous lisez, ils/elles lisent

Verbs that end in -dre and -tre

Exceptions

• The verb prendretake and its related forms apprendrelearn, comprendreunderstand, surprendresurprise, etc. lose the d in their plural forms.
  In addition, the n is doubled in the ils/elles form.

  Example:

  prendretake – je prends, tu prends, il/elle/on prend, nous prenons, vous prenez, ils/elles prennent.

• Verbs that end in -indre (atteindrewait, craindrefear, éteindreturn off, joindrecombine, peindrepaint, plaindrepity, teindredye ...) lose the d in the singular and plural forms.
  In addition, we transform the n to gn in the plural forms.

  Example:

  peindrepaint – je peins, tu peins, il/elle/on peint, nous peignons, vous peignez, ils/elles peignent

-oir Verbs

Verbs that end in -oir such as recevoirreceive, apercevoirglimpse, concevoirdesign, décevoirdisappoint, percevoirperceive are conjugated as follows:

Note: the verbs avoirhave, devoirmust, mouvoirmove, pouvoirbe able to, savoirknow, voirsee und vouloirwant are irregular and are not conjugated in the same way as recevoir. Check out their conjugations on our page on irregular verbs in French and practise in the exercises.

Important Irregular Verbs: avoir, être, aller and faire