Present Tense - Indicative Mood

Indicative mood

Indicative means neutral, so you act or speak in a neutral way (opposed to subjunctive or conditional mood)

Present Tense:

The word tense comes from the old English “tens” and before that from the Latin: “Tempus”, its first meaning is “Time”, however in English for the verbs we prefer to use the word “tense”, so when you say “present tense”, the meaning is “present time” or “for the time being”.

In French, we have one word for “Time” and “Tense” coming from the Latin too: “Temps”

There are 3 groups for verbs and you need to know them to be able to conjugate them.

1. Verbs ending with –er (infinitive form): 1st group
2. Verbs ending with –ir: 2nd group (they have some forms : -issons, -issez)
3. Other verbs: 3rd group

1-First group:

Example: verb to sing: chanter, most of these verbs are regular: Present Tense:
·Je chant-e
· Tu chant-es
· Il, Elle chant-e
·Nous chant-ons
·Vous chant-ez
· Ils, Elles chant-ent

Of course, there are exceptions: to go: Aller (je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont)...
Another one: to call : appeler, you know this verb because we use it to say our name.
· J’appelle
·Tu appelles
·Il, Elle appelle
·Nous appelons
·Vous appelez
·Ils, Elles appellent

My name is or I call myself John
·Je m’appelle John
·Tu t’appelles John
·Il s’appelle John
·Nous nous appelons
·Vous vous appelez
·Ils s’appellent

2- Second group: Example: to end: finir
· Je fin-is
·Tu fin-is
·Il, Elle fin-it
·Nous fin-issons
·Vous fin-issez
·Ils, Elles fin-issent

To die (mourir) or to open (ouvrir) are not part of this group: -Je meurs, tu meurs, il meurt, nous mourons, vous mourez, ils meurent -J’ouvre, tu ouvres, il ouvre, nous ouvrons, vous ouvrez, ils ouvrent

3- Third group : All the other verbs ending in –ir (like mourir, ouvrir) in –re, in –oir, you need to know them. You need a conjugator like the one we have on our page: http://www.frenchspanishonline.com/beginnersfrench/freefrench.html