lazwarz

[grave briar]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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[little spear]

There are multiple.

Le passé composé avec 'avoir/être' et le passé simple.

I ate -> Je mangeais
I have eaten -> J'ai mangé.
This is merely to illustrate what they look like; the passé composé is a lot more common and knowing when to use which tense is a valuable skill.

[neon dagger]

On this video it says in English I say I ate yesterday -> j’ai mangé hier (I had eaten yesterday)

[solemn wedge]

C'est marrant, manger est toujours le verbe privilégié pour fournir des exemples

[little spear]

*have eaten.

[scarlet flax]

The French "j'ai mangé" does not mean I had eaten, it means "I ate"
on the surface, the passé composé looks like the present perfect in French (j'ai mangé→ I have eaten) but the meaning is not the same

[little spear]

Passé simple is mostly for actions in the past that have already finished and are of a short duration.

[neon dagger]

So does it say I have eaten yesterday or I ate yesterday

[scarlet flax]

try not to think of French grammar in terms of English

it will just confuse you

[neon dagger]

What does it say

[scarlet flax]

it depends

"j'ai mangé" could be translated by the simple past or the present perfect, depending on the context

[neon dagger]

ohh

[scarlet flax]

j'ai mangé hier → I ate yesterday
j'ai déjà mangé → I have already eaten

[neon dagger]

Oo

Can j’ai mangé hier mean I had eaten yesterday

[scarlet flax]

no

[little spear]

^

[scarlet flax]

j'avais mangé hier → I had eaten yesterday

[neon dagger]

Is this wrong

[scarlet flax]

yes

[neon dagger]

Because I’ve been using this video to learn have I learnt everything wrong

[little spear]

Not ideal considering it's GCSE practice.

[neon dagger]

I’m doing gcse

[little spear]

Impossible to know without having seen the full video.

[scarlet flax]

2.2K views…

[neon dagger]

I’m scared

[scarlet flax]

it's not off by a ton

but it's wrong

[neon dagger]

Omg

[scarlet flax]

probably not a good resource

[neon dagger]

What the hell 😭😭 I’m so scared now

Is this wrong lemme send pic

Is any of this wrong

[scarlet flax]

looks fine

(I didn't read everything)

[neon dagger]

Kk

Is there any places to learn french grammar

[little spear]

I did; all good.

[scarlet flax]

lawlessfrench.com

[neon dagger]

Yess great thanks omg 😭

Guys so what is the perfect tense in french

[little spear]

Le passé composé.

It's the auxiliary verb avoir or être in the present tense plus the past participle of the verb.

[neon dagger]

Oo

Do u add it in

To a sentence that’s in past tense

Then it becomes perfect

[little spear]

That's the perfect tense. ^

[neon dagger]

How can I make it past tense

[little spear]

And here it is using 'être':

[little spear]

It already is.

The perfect tense is a past tense.

It describes completed actions.

[neon dagger]

But isn’t it a type of past tense

[astral grove]

contact your french teacher, and don't worry too much

[neon dagger]

It’s the holiday 😭 she won’t answer

My exam is soon

Next month

[astral grove]

year 10?

[neon dagger]

11

I’m going into I mean

[astral grove]

which one

writing?

[neon dagger]

I have year 11 mocks

All of them

[astral grove]

Oh okay

Don't worry too much it won't do much good

[neon dagger]

I need to understand it still

I want a grade 9

[little spear]

Yes.

[astral grove]

Do you need it for a course you want to do?

[little spear]

I'm not quite sure what your question is regarding the present perfect.

[neon dagger]

I’m just asking a question if ur not gonna tell me stop going I don’t need to know and let someone else help me

[little spear]

(Present) perfect = passé composé.

[neon dagger]

Let me explain thanks for helping me

[little spear]

Mostly.

There's no 1:1 match.

[neon dagger]

Is it basically the same

But just a few differences

[little spear]

Yes.

What differences?

[neon dagger]

Is there anytime that I have to use perfect tense

[neon dagger]

Like I ate and I had eaten

Is I had eaten the perfect tense

[little spear]

Present perfect: 'to have/to be' + past participle.
Passé composé :'avoir/être/ + past participle.

No.

I have eaten.

'I had eaten' is only used in certain situations.

[neon dagger]

Ohh

[little spear]

Such as:

I had already eaten by the time my sister prepared her breakfast.

[neon dagger]

Is this one the perfect tense

[little spear]

No.

[neon dagger]

What’s the perfect tense 😭

I thought it was I have eaten

[little spear]

It's the present perfect.

[scarlet flax]

some places teach the passé composé as a perfect tense, but as an English teacher I totally disagree
passé composé is just a past tense
present perfect is fundamentally a present tense

[little spear]

They're two names for the same thing.

[neon dagger]

Is there a past perfect fence

Tense

What’s the perfect tenses

[scarlet flax]

plus-que-parfait is the equivalent of the past perfect

[little spear]

The present perfect links the past and present.

I have (present) eaten (past).

[neon dagger]

Ohh

[little spear]

J'ai (present) mangé (past).

[neon dagger]

Is that I ate or I have eaten

How would I say I have eaten

[tiny grail]

Just think of passé composé as having conquered the simples past tense, it’s not that it either has a perfect meaning or a simple past meaning

it’s always both

[little spear]

Both.

[tiny grail]

it’s like asking whether the english past tense means the simple past or the imperfect past

[neon dagger]

Ohh

[little spear]

Don't translate French word for word into English.

It won't do you any good.

[neon dagger]

Right

Yes makes sense

[tiny grail]

the tenses are simply divided up differently in french

[neon dagger]

Ugh I wish it was more straightforward 😭

[little spear]

Otherwise you'll notice that some things don't make sense but are still 100% correct.

[little spear]

Do you speak German, by chance? There are more similiarities there.

[neon dagger]

I’m learning it so not really 😭

I always found German easier to learn

[little spear]

Have you learnt any of German's past tenses?

🇬🇧 I have eaten/I ate.
🇫🇷 J'ai mangé/Je mangeais
🇩🇪 Ich habe gegessen/Ich aß

[neon dagger]

Ugh no

Only present

[marsh yoke]

regarding the passé composé bit I’ll just copy paste a comment I wrote

This nuance between the simple past and present perfect in English, as Sam said, has completely disappeared in French, and it only exists when we’re translating from French into English. The present perfect describes past actions that is still relevant to the moment of utterance whereas the simple past describes past actions disconnected from the utterance.
‘I’ve eaten two whole eggs this morning’
=> In the past I ate two eggs but it’s still relevant now because I ate them in the morning and it’s still the morning – the relevance is that the time period has not ended.
‘I ate two whole eggs yesterday’
=> In the past I ate two eggs but it’s no longer relevant because the time period in which said action happened – yesterday – is wholly separate from the time period of the utterance which is the following day.

In Modern French, both would use the same tense:
« Ce matin, j’ai mangé deux œufs entiers. »
« Hier, j’ai mangé deux œufs entiers. »

[little spear]

Even in English you can mix them in your example.

Well, for the first one.

Not the latter.

[scarlet flax]

Another nuance to add to this is that North American English has largely lost this distinction and the simple past is generally preferred: I ate two whole eggs this morning.

In NAEng we do still use the present perfect, but generally only with certain adverbs (already, never, etc)

[marsh yoke]

Do note that simple past/present perfect difference varies by dialect; what I wrote above is acceptable and ‘proper’ in British English but American English prefers the simple over the perfect

dang

[scarlet flax]

‘proper’ 🤮

[little spear]

As someone who grew up around British English, I'd say the following:

• I ate two whole eggs this morning
• I've already eaten two whole eggs this morning

[marsh yoke]

dunno if you’re protesting the word ‘proper’, my usage of single quotes, or both

[scarlet flax]

yes

[marsh yoke]

if proper, agree
if single quotes, I will die on this hill

[little spear]

Single quotes are the best and I won't change them either.

[scarlet flax]

I don’t care what use use as long as they’re “curly”

Uncurly quotes are terrible

[little spear]

Single quotes are apostrophes in terms of appearance.

And position on the keyboard.

[scarlet flax]

Not if they’re curly, they’re not the same on both sides

But at the end of the day, the only really bad quotes are the „German” ones
Ahhhhhhhhh

[little spear]

I wholly agree.

I have an English keyboard at work.

I'm sure I got marked down a point or two in my exams in high school too.

That said, I dislike the French quotation marks almost equally.

[scarlet flax]

Nah, French « guillemets » are pretty

Except when learners use <<this>>

[little spear]

Although, they do surround the quote nicely. 🤔

Yeah, I rescind my statement.

[scarlet flax]

Or those Chinese ones that I don’t have on this keyboard

[marsh yoke]

Guillemets are pretty but only if they’re used like English quotes, I hate the French quote system especially in dialogue.
« – Amélie, haleta-t-il. Aide-moi !
– Non ! cria-t-elle, c’est toi qui es méchant ! »

Anyway sorry for the derailment @neon dagger

[neon dagger]

Thanks guys

[neon dagger]

How can I change the tenses in a sentence like
If I wanted to say
I ate
And if I wanted to say separately
I have eaten

Will it be the same sentence just with different context

[marsh yoke]

Yes

« J’ai mangé » will be the result

That being said, the imparfait can come up here in certain contexts

[neon dagger]

Yess okay

You guys are such life savers 😭😭❤️ Thanks so much

[marsh yoke]

An example that comes to mind is states of being. When I say, ‘I wanted to become a doctor’, it can either be « Je voulais devenir médecin » or « J’ai voulu devenir médecin », depending on context.
In this case, we have find that context and change its wording appropriately: what is meant by ‘I wanted’? Does it mean that in the past I wanted it but now no longer do, or does it mean that in the past I wanted it and I still do to this day?

For the first result, we can change our original wording to:
‘I used to want to become a doctor’ which will be the imparfait : « Je voulais devenir médecin ».
For the second, we can reword it into ‘I’ve always wanted to become a doctor’ which would be passé composé : « J’ai voulu devenir médecin ».

[little spear]

Two quotes within the same guillemets ? Feels illegal. :(

[neon dagger]

Omg yes this makes so much sense

Thank you so much omg

I’m so grateful

I understand

Thank you omg

[neon dagger]

Is it right still haha

[little spear]

I fear so.