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FRENCH QUESTION
I don't understand this whole thing about "le present, L'imperatif, le Passe Compose and L'imparfait."
I have to fill out sheets w/ all of those tenses for the verbs aller and venir.
i completely don't get this. so can someone explain to me the different french verb tenses?
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Le present, as I'm sure you've worked out, is the present tense. You use this to describe what is happening at the present time. Most French verbs are regular -er verbs, which means they follow a pattern. E.g 'aller' (to go), 'regarder' (to watch), 'manger' (to eat). To convert these infinitive verbs into the present tense, in most cases we simply lose the -r. So 'regarder' becomes 'regarde', 'aller' becomes 'alle' and so on.
There are also regular -ir and -re verbs. For example, 'venir' (to come) becomes 'venis' and 'perdre' (to lose) becomes 'perds'. There are a few exceptions to the rule and these are know as irregular verbs. There is no easy way to remember these other than to learn them.
Le passe compose is the most common form of what we know as the past tense. We use this when describing what has happened or what someone has done. An important thing to remember with the past tense is that there are two different parts of the verb - the auxiliary verb (who or what did the action) and the past participle (what happened).
One of the easier auxiliary verbs is 'avoir'. Do you remember our regular -er verbs? In their case, the past participle part of the verb is formed by replacing the -er ending with -é. For example, 'manger' becomes mangé. For our regular -ir and -re verbs, we can do something similar. The -ir verbs work by simply removing the -ir and adding i. 'Venir' and 'finir' (to finish) become 'veni' and 'fini'. For verbs ending in -re, we placed the -re with u. 'Perdre' becomes 'perdu' and so on.
As with irregular present tense verbs, it is best to just learn them. You should also learn the verbs which take 'être' as an auxiliary verb. A common method of remembering these is 'MRS VAN DER TRAMP'. Each intial stands for a verb. You might find it useful to look at these verbs here: [Link](Mouse over link to see full location).
L'imparfait or imperfect tense is another past tense used to describe what was happening or what used to happen at a certain time.
To form it, you need to know the 'nous' (we) form of present tense verbs. For example, 'nous regardons' (we watch), 'nous mangeons' (we eat). Next, we remove the -ons from the word so that we are left with what is know as a stem - 'regard', 'mange'.
Now we add the following endings:
je (I) ... -ais
tu (you)... -ais
il/elle (him/her)... -ait
nous (we)... -ions
vous (we)... -iez
ils/elles (they - plural)... -aient
So if we wanted to say 'I watched' in the imperfect tense, we would say 'J'ais regard'.
The future tense is probably the easiest of all. The easier method is to simply take your infinitive verb (jouer, manger etc) and add whoever will be doing it. For example, if you are just saying 'I will do' then it's as simple as 'Je vais jouer' (I will play).
If you're still confused, you might like to take a look at this website: [Link](Mouse over link to see full location).
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