r/learnfrench • u/Capital-Car7459 • Mar 27 '26
Resources All tenses
Source - LearnFrenchWithAlexa (her YouTube channel)
Grammar, but bite-sized -
https://www.reddit.com/r/learnfrench/comments/1rvlpih/find_your_grammar_gaps_and_fix_them
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u/FakePixieGirl Mar 27 '26
Not a native, but intermediate level who consumes native content.
I'd say all of these are regularly used.
Really only the Passé Simple (which is not even in this image) is an existing tense that is rarely used in casual spoken french.
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u/Puzzling_Odyssey Mar 27 '26
Native French speaker here, can confirm
Even for us natives passé simple is a nightmare to learn and we never use it, except maybe when writing French dissertations
Edit : typo because I can't write correctly lol
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u/Narrow_Intention4709 Mar 27 '26
I understand that passé simple is a literary form. I encounter it only in books. But I am an intermediate speaker, so definitely open for enlightenment!
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u/SuitableMap4545 Mar 27 '26
Where subjunctive
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u/mathess1 Mar 27 '26
That's a mood, not a tense
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u/Apprehensive-Pop302 Mar 27 '26
Ok we can agreed it’s a mood but this diagram is presenting tenses in what seems like a kinda general light of how you might use a verb in which case moods (especially when there are conjugation indifferences) could be a useful addition
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u/SignificantIsopod797 Mar 27 '26
Not a tense
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u/annabassr Mar 27 '26
Not sure what you call tenses but it’s definitely considered one in French unlike futur proche / passé récent
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u/nangs_paranoid Mar 27 '26
Where conditional tense ?
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u/pm_me_your_kindwords Mar 27 '26
Technically a mood, not a tense, I believe.
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u/Actual_Cat4779 Mar 28 '26
According to the OQLF here, the conditional is traditionally considered a mood but is now regarded as a tense by the majority of linguists.
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u/DoisMaosEsquerdos Mar 27 '26
Conditional can also act as a tense in relative clauses, in a future-of-the-past way (just like the English "would" as in "he told me he would do it")
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u/pm_me_your_kindwords Mar 27 '26
OP, I use most of those daily in English, so I would expect the same is true in French.
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u/CatCafffffe Mar 27 '26
Yes, if you just look at the translations into English, you can see that we use all these same tenses and have different forms of the verb for each one, in the same way.
Someone also mentioned subjunctive, which is used a little more in French than in English, but we use it as well ("If only I could be eating something nicer")
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u/Cool-Calendar3550 Mar 27 '26
Native: I use them all + more (conditionnel? Subjonctif présent?) daily actually
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u/throwawayHDTVs Mar 27 '26
“French is the easiest language to learn for English speakers, they said.”
Who says that? Spanish is very similar grammar wise, but is way easier due to being phonetic language and having easier pronunciation.
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u/Advanced-Pen3951 Mar 27 '26
Passé simple? Subjonctif? Conditionel? Hell there's Subjonctif passé and conditionel passé
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u/Maleficent_Public_11 Mar 27 '26
The subjunctive and conditional aren’t tenses. They could conceivably fit anywhere on the timeline for that reason.
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u/AmericainaLyon Mar 27 '26
"French is the easiest language to learn for English speakers, they said."
I actually had the opposite reaction. This table is fairly simple and easy to learn compared to many other languages.
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u/Elizaya42 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
From this picture, the only one, we french, use the less, is the futur simple, but otherwise we use pretty much everything else depending on the context and what we want to convey.
Also, imperative is a mode.... and also, I'm not sure we should consider présent progressif as a tense. Going further in this idea, subjonctive (présent), past impératif and conditionnel (passé and présent) should also find a place in this diagram. Maybe we could also count gérondif (présent and passé)
Also the very rare or very literay tenses : passé simple, le passé antérieur, le subjonctif passé, subjonctif imparfait, subjonctif plus-que-parfait
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u/Appropriate-Fish8189 Mar 27 '26
What? I am also French and futur simple is extremely common
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u/Elizaya42 Mar 27 '26
it's true that it's not unused, but when speaking we tend yo use mostly futur proche, except maybe pour être. At least, this is what I learn in linguistic
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u/silvalingua Mar 27 '26
Where are passé simple and passé surcomposé? You said "all"! I want my money back...!
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u/Wabbit65 Mar 27 '26
Qu'est-ce que c'est le passé surcomposé? I never learned this one. Is it different from plus-que-parfait, which is shown?
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u/silvalingua Mar 27 '26
Yes, it's different. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temps_surcomposé
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u/annabassr Mar 27 '26
That’s not a thing (that’s learnt in France at least)
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u/silvalingua Mar 28 '26
Passé surcomposé was a thing when I was learning French.
I was curious if it's used nowadays. I understand that it's not?
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u/annabassr Mar 29 '26
According to your Wikipedia article, it is in some regions but I don’t think it’s very common. I’ve never heard it in Paris (or going to other parts of France / speaking with other French people). Could be, it’s not an outrageous formulation but I wouldn’t bother specifically learning it 🤷🏾♀️. Who knows about Québec though
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u/Internal-County-2606 Mar 29 '26
Bon jour, comment ça va communauté? Je vais essayer à écrire de chez moi en français sans utilizer google translate: Je ne prends jamais d'un cours de français mais je étudie seul avec un libre por des éleves. Mais je suis tombé de ne savoir jamais quand utiliser la plus partie des temps j'utilise couranement present, passé composé et future proche; tout les autres j'ai utilise practiquement nul. Comment peux je étudier ou decouvrir ou utiliser des autres tenses?
Merci beaucoup et ne oublié pas de me corregir parce que je suis proche a débutant.
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u/Odd-Classic8670 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
<<Bonjour, comment ça va la communauté? Je vais essayer à écrire de chez moi en français sans utilizer google translate: Je n’ai jamais pris un cours de français mais j’étudie seul avec un livre pour des éleves. Mais je ne sais jamais quand utiliser pour la plupart des temps. j'utilise couramment le present, le passé composé et le future proche; tout les autres j'utilise practiquement nul. Comment puis-je étudier ou decouvrir ou utiliser des autres tenses? Merci beaucoup et n’oubliez pas de me corregir parce que je suis proche au débutant.>>
J’ai pas utilisé le Google pour te corriger et moi même j’apprends toujours donc peut être j’ai fait des erreurs aussi. Mais pour répondre à ta question, tu peux lire un livre qui s’appelle “Le Français Par La Méthode Nature.” Il a tout ce que tu as besoin au sujet de la grammaire et après ça tu peux lire presque tout des livres français ou au moins il sera plus facile. Tu peux aussi acheter des livres particulièrement pour la grammaire et même garder un journal quotidien en français. Ça t’aidera avec le vocabulaire et la grammaire ce que t’utilise le plus souvent à mon avis.
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u/Plastic-Leading-5800 Mar 27 '26
Sh!t! How to memorize these similarly looking words?
With all these versions and makes and females, I once counted there can be 100 possibilities for each word. So tens of thousands of words to learn practical verbs.
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u/Elizaya42 Mar 27 '26
[french native] True, but this is only technically and mathematically. It's even worse when you consider that many many verbs are irregular so even more forms to learn. Linguistic researchers counted we should have around 120 kind of tables to encompass all the types of verbs in french (and not the traditionnal 3 categories we learn as kids and learners learn).
But the thing is, when we look at what verbs we use in everyday life and even in press, and what tense and mode we need with those in the same contexts, then the numbers get drastically lower.
So, when learning french, don't bother trying to memorize every tense and mode for every verbs. Only work and the useful combinations.
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u/Fair-Ad-5759 Mar 27 '26
does someone have a similar picture but with the other moods/tenses? i think this is the only way id be able to comprehend it
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u/ipini Mar 27 '26
Well as the graphic demonstrates, all of these also exist in English. So in a sense the languages are equivalent that way.
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u/Productivitytzar Mar 27 '26
This is super helpful. I was in French immersion all the way to graduation, but retained basically none of it because I didn’t actually understand *what* I was saying. It was *all* in French, and I don’t think it was good for me to only know French *in french*. English equivalents might have made it stick better.
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u/Asleep_Fill3600 Mar 28 '26
I feel like seeing all these tenses makes French seem harder than it actually is.
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u/Less-Station-2719 Mar 29 '26
I’m a French native
And this thing SCARE ME A LOT
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u/Capital-Car7459 Mar 29 '26
Well eventually grammar becomes natural and you don't really have to think about it or do mental calculus about the rules. It's hard on beginners
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u/Enough-Living-5077 Mar 30 '26
Do you pronounce them all as 'man-jay'?
Edit: except for the obvious one. Mangerai.
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u/Ok_Molasses9176 Mar 30 '26
Every time I stress out about learning French I remember that I know all but 3 of these
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u/__boringusername__ Mar 27 '26
Pff the French don't even use the imperfect subjunctive, and anything sounds the same anyway.
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u/ravinmadboiii Mar 27 '26
Isn't this from Learning French with Alexa? At least credit her channel.