Connor (corrigez-moi svp)

[oblique gulch]

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[unreal meteor]

All of them except the passé simple, imparfait du subjonctif, and their respective perfect forms (passé antérieur...)

The 3rd person passé simple forms can also be quite useful to know at a B2 level

When it comes to simple tenses (or rather, TMAs), there are 6: présent, imparfait, subjonctif, futur, conditionnel and impératif

All the other commonly used tenses are compound tenses where an auxiliary verb is conjugated in one of those 6 basic tenses

[untold harness]

sorry which one is that?

[unreal meteor]

il donna / ils donnèrent

3rd person aren't too uncommon in writing; 1st person forms (je donnai / nous donnâmes) occasionally occur in novels, while 2nd person form are practically unused and completely safe to ignore.

[untold harness]

ah ok i fully understand now thank you man!

[untold harness]

is there any other pronoun conjugations i can ignore for any other tenses since im trying to speed learn my exams coming up in a few months?

[unreal meteor]

No, that is specific to the passé simple. However, tense endings are not random and there are many recurring patterns

[untold harness]

but its just that i have so many verbs to learn 😭

[unreal meteor]

Study the 6 I mentionned and notice the patterns in them: for instance, the imperfect and conditional use the same endings

You don't have to learn individual verbs, apart from truly irregular ones like être or avoir.

[untold harness]

but for my exam i have to write either: a diary entry, informal letter or formal letter. so it would be benefitial to learn at least the most common 100 verbs since the topic is chosen at random

[untold harness]

where could i find a list that has verbs that conjugate similarly?

i have a book but it doesnt have a list of similar conjugations

so i have to memorise each individual verb

[lament oriole]

you probably need to learn around 30 to 50 irregular verbs
but the rest of the verbs are much simpler
and many "irregular" verbs, are just a different irregular verb with a prefix, and those ones (generally) conjugate identically to the 'base' verb

it sounds like a big task, but you need to break it down into steps
master the present first, then add other conjugations on

[untold harness]

alright thank you man, so if i learn one verb, would i be able to guess the conjugations for its similar verb conjugation eg. memorise ouvrir conjugations and guess the souffrir conjugations?

[lament oriole]

hmm i never thought of ouvrir and souffrir as being similar verbs, but I guess they conjugate the same way? at least the conjugations that I can think of off the top of my head

but that's it, generally speaking
prendre, surprendre, apprendre, for instance, all conjugate the same

[untold harness]

so its possible to just learn the main similar verb and just google its similar conjugations?

[wanton hull]

There are a few that don't follow a related verb but it's more common to follow the pattern than not

Eh.. how good are you with present?

[untold harness]

good but not the best, i just memorise tenses like the present, i havent used it in a sentence yet because im similtanously learning vocab and grammer rules

[wanton hull]

Using them in sentences is the easiest way to get them to stick

All other tenses more or less rely on the present, it's the most complicated tense to conjugate

[mortal briar]

I would say you should know to recognise the passé simple since it comes up a lot in literature

But keep that for last

[wanton hull]

Yeah Nired said 3rd person passé simple

It's easy enough to recognize anyways

[untold harness]

alright thank you, im finding subjonctif passe, imparfait and plus que parfait the most difficult at the moment and i think theyre both needed to be learned because they can cover many topics

[untold harness]

alright thanks man!

[wanton hull]

Iirc
Imparfait - nous form -ons + imparfait endings
Conditional - infinitive (-e for -re verbs) + imparfait endings
Futur - conditional stem + present avoir endings

They're all linked basically

Passé composé is just
Present avoir/être (understand DR MRS VANDERTRAMP) + past participle (past participle agreements are a tricky topic - relatively simple but may be hard to wrap your head around)

Subjonctif I forget the rule for
-er regular is just the same as present aside from nous/vous which take -ions and -iez endings respectively

Imperative is usually the same as present tense tu/vous/nous forms, with the final s removed for all -er verbs (except before y or en)

Sometimes uses the same form as subjunctive for irregulars

[untold harness]

for imparfait, nous form -ons is the same as any other tense stem i think? ''donn''

[wanton hull]

No

Finiss

Pren

[untold harness]

ah ok sorry

[wanton hull]

For -er probably

Often

-er are basically all regular verbs tho

[untold harness]

yes i am able to understand them from seeing but not yet make sentences using them, your the one that acually helped me with them lol #1241481615415181392 message

[wanton hull]

Ah yes

But yeah the main thing is practice

I studied and memorized for ages, none of it started to stick til I was using them in context and seeing how they related to each other

[untold harness]

ah i see well at least i know now how to start properly 😀

[untold harness]

where does donnât come from in the present

[unreal meteor]

For -er verbs, the imperfect subjunctive is form from that present nous stem (nous donnons -> donn-) to which you add the -asse, -asses, -ât, -assions, assiez, assent endings
You really, really don't need to know this tense though

[untold harness]

could you please give me an example when the final s is removed?

[unreal meteor]

Though to be honest, imperfect subjunctive forms come free with knowing how to form the passé simple (which you also don't need to worry about for now)

[unreal meteor]

Imperative forms are generally identical to tu/nous/vous present tense forms.
One caveat is with the tu form: if its present tense ends in -es (or -as in the one isolated case of "tu vas"), you remove that s, and otherwise you keep it the same

Tu manges -> mange !
Tu offres -> offre !
Tu vas -> va !
Tu viens -> viens !
Tu bois -> bois !
Tu finis -> finis !
Tu prends -> prends !

What do you mean by that exactly?

[untold harness]

so whats the difference or how can i learn how to conjugate between the passé antérieur, future antérieur, plus que parfait, subjonctif plus que parfait and passé, conditional passé premiére forme auxillary tenses?

[unreal meteor]

I'm not sure I understand this question

[lament oriole]

tbh you shouldn't be asking yourself this question until you've mastered the present, passé composé, the imperfect, the futur simple, and the conditional
it's just a waste of time

[untold harness]

i have basically, ive been learning french for 3 years but not intensly

[unreal meteor]

In terms of how to conjugate them, it's rather easy as it just comes down to conjugating the auxiliary in one of the simple tenses.

In terms of how they are used, it's mostly in line with the way perfect tenses (I have done, I will have done etc.) are used in English, though you will have to take the necessary time to study it eventually. For now the only crucial one to know about is the passé composé, as Andy said.

[lament oriole]

@untold harness this statement leads me to believe that you ahven't yet
you need to be able to intuitively use all of the tenses that I cited in order to form and use those other compound tenses

[wanton hull]

Learn present first, then the basic tenses. The other ones will be infinitely easier as it's just a matter of combining tenses

[untold harness]

do you have a list of the 50 commonly used irregular verbs in infinitive form?

[lament oriole]

nope, but google probably does