#johnswords
mossy schooner
nova tulip
Past tense notes?
burnt talon
there are many past tenses in French (around 10 or so) but you probably only need 2 of those and you'll get pretty far. Those two tenses are passé composé and imparfait.
They are used alongside one another to cover most bases of past tense in French.
- passé composé: one-time, defined events
- imparfait: elongated or recurrent events, habits, states
Going in detail into each of those tenses would be just me paraphrasing what you can read in grammar articles anyway, is there anything specific you're confused about regarding those tenses?
strong cove
Yeah I also looking at passe compose.
No no. It says that passe compose has to use "avoir" and "être" in conjugated forms. It's confusing me.
If anyone has a list of verbs conjugated in past. I want to see it.
First I'd like to look at some verbs in past conjugated form.
Then please let me know what is the deal with avoir and etre.
Is it also corresponding to present perfect?
To have done something?
burnt talon
No no. It says that passe compose has to use "avoir" and "être" in conjugated fo...
passé composé is what's called a compound tense (or perfect tense)
it's a tense that uses an auxiliary (être or avoir) in another tense + a past participle
That tense being present for passé composé
So you just... conjugate your auxiliary in present tense
And slap the past participle after that one
⚠️ It's similar to present perfect in English but not directly equivalent!
burnt talon
yeah, but before I do
strong cove
Auxiliary is in present tense.
!?!?!?!?
burnt talon
past participles are VERY USEFUL
not only they're used for passé composé, but a ton of tenses in french. Actually, half of them
And they are not conjugated, they only have one form for each verb (actually a bit more because they can agree in gender and number)
burnt talon
Auxiliary is in present tense.
!?!?!?!?
for instance for -er verbs, past participle ends with -é
How would you conjugate "manger" with je in passé composé (auxiliary is "avoir")
strong cove
J'ai mangé?
burnt talon
that's right
"ai" is avoir in present tense
"mangé" is the past participle for manger
j'ai mangé -> I ate
strong cove
It's different for re ending and other verbs?
burnt talon
yes, for regular -ir verbs it's -i
for other verbs it's... well you kinda have to learn them you know
boire -> bu
pouvoir -> pu
devoir -> dû
prendre -> pris
avoir -> eu
être -> été
faire -> fait
etc
strong cove
Omg thank you so much because last night when I looked at the grammar it was so confusing. I gave up and went to sleep.
burnt talon
past participles should not be too complicated. They're extremely useful, so I recommend you check them out
strong cove
I sure will. I'll have to memorise until I get the pattern.
burnt talon
also, two things:
- most verbs use avoir as an auxiliary, but a handful use être (ex: je suis parti). Check this article for more info: https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/auxiliary-verbs/
- passé composé only works for one-time, defined events. For elongated events, states, habits, recurrent events, imparfait is the tense of choice.
We went for a walk / The theater closed / I have never seen that => passé composé
I usually went to the bar / I was out yesterday / What were you doing => imparfait