#kayleighissleeping
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Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.
Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.
The verb aller?
What past and future tense?
Of the verb “aller”^
For past, do you mean imparfait (j'allais) or passé composé (je suis allé.e)?
For future, do you mean futur proche (je vais aller), futur antérieur (je serai allé), futur simple (j'irai)?
Okay
What is it that you are confusing with the passé composé and futur proche?
That’s a deeper question
Okay so I'm going to start with the futur proche: The futur proche is just the verb « aller » conjugated in the present tense plus the main verb in the infinitive. It's equivalent to the English form 'be going to + verb'
Do you know how to conjugate « aller » in the present tense?
Okay so you should train yourself on that:
« je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont »
Yup
Je vais courir
I am going to run
Yeah but don't forget to conjugate per person
I'm going to run –> Je vais courir
You're (singular) going to run –> Tu vas courir
He's going to run –> Il va courir
etc etc
je vais*
It's right actually
'I'm going to the United States'
So that's « aller » used as a verb
in the futur proche, « aller » is used as a helper to denote the future aspect
Je vais aux États-Unis –> I'm going to the United States
Je vais aller aux États-Unis –> I'm going to go to the United States
See the difference?
It’s the same as English. We have different tenses of the same verb. I went, I am going, I am going to go,
No, they're conjugated per person:
Je vais = I go
Tu vas = You go (singular/informal)
Il/Elle va = He/she goes
Nous allons = We go
Vous allez = You go (plural/formal)
Ils/Elles vont = They go (male/female)
Not just « va », it has to be conjugated by person
You saying present tense of 'to go' is just « va » is like saying the present tense of 'to be' is just 'am'
That would imply you'd say, 'I am, you am, he am, we am, they am' when that's not the case
This feels like trolling 🙃
Ehh let's give them the benefit of the doubt
If they're an English speaker, I understand them not understanding verb conjugation since English's verb conjugation has coalesced in the present, with a distinct conjugation in the third person singular (excepting common verbs like 'to be')
If you’re still taking a French course, I recommend reviewing pronouns with your professor. They also exist in English and they also change with the tense. I found it easier to learn tenses and a handful or verbs that follow, rather than learning one verb in all its tenses.
Anyway, do you think you're good with the futur proche?
Just to emphasise on this part, you only conjugate once, so you just write « je vais aller » and not « je vais vais »
Okay so we're going to go into passé composé
No, conjunction is something that joins two clauses
A clause is basically the smallest unit, consisting of just a subject and a verb
'I know that you are scared.'
Here, we have two clauses: 'I know' and 'You are scared'. The conjunction is the word 'that' which joins the two clauses together.
Passé composé is similar to futur proche in that they have two parts – they're both 'compound' verbs – but where the futur proche consists of « aller + infinitive », passé composé consists of « auxiliary verb + past participle ».
The conjugation of passé composé is exactly like English's present perfect.
This is the present perfect conjugation for 'to do': 'I have done, you have done, he has done, we have done, they have done'
As we see, there is the verb 'to have' plus the past participle version of 'to do', 'done'
What changes, what is being conjugated, is the auxiliary/helper verb 'to have' whereas the past participle 'done' doesn't change.
We can think of verb conjugation as containing two bits of information: The tense (which includes person, number, gender), and the meaning (what the verb is).
For example, if I were to say, 'He does', the word 'does' includes two things:
(1) The tense (present indicative) which also contains person (third), number (singular), gender (male)
(2) The meaning (the act of performing something)
With me so far?
No, just a learner
this type of nerdy shit just interests me lol
Anyway, you got this? @bright patio
'he' denotes one person
if I wanted to mean more than one, I'd use 'they'
no worries
Okay, so the idea of compound tenses is that they separate (1) and (2). If we look at the 'I'm going to run/Je vais courir' example, we can see that the tense (1) is carried by the helper verb « aller » because that bit is the one conjugated but the meaning (2) is carried by the infinitive « courir »
I'm going to (1) run (2)
(1) Be going: Tense (future indicative), person (first), number (singular), gender (male/female)
(2) To run: Meaning (the act of moving at a high speed)
The first 'go' is not the same as the second 'go'
I'm going to go
–> The first 'to go' is the helper/auxiliary
–> The second 'to go' is the actual verb used for the meaning
That's why the part I can change is only the second bit: I'm going to go/run/leave/walk, etc
That first verb is only there for conjugation and to mark tense, the actual bit I'm doing is the second
It would yes because the first is used for conjugation, the second is meaning
« Je vais + aller/courir/marcher/dormir »
No, just 'run'
I am going + to go/to run/to walk/to sleep
The 'I am going' part just tells me that this is a future tense conjugated according to the pronoun 'I', it doesn't tell me anything else; it only has (1) but not (2)
(2) is supplied by what comes after like 'to go, to run, to walk, to sleep'
This idea also applies to the passé composé where you have two separate things: First you have the auxiliary verb which marks tense and the past participle which marks meaning.
« J'ai fait, tu as fait, il a fait, nous avons fait, vous avez fait, ils ont fait »
Again, we have two bits of information that are separated:
–> (1) Tense is marked by the auxiliary verb « avoir » whose present conjugations are « j'ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont »
–> (2) Meaning is marked by the past participle of the verb « faire » which means 'the act of performing something'
With me so far?
It's similar to the futur proche but instead of the meaning part given by the infinitive, it's given by the past participle
J'ai fait, tu as fait, il a fait …
Je vais faire, tu vas faire, il va faire …
(1) Underlined part : Tense
(2) Bolded part: Meaning
The infinitive is the unchanged version of a verb, 'to go, to run, to walk, to do'
The past participle is similar to the infinitive but changed in respect to time, implying that this is in the past
no
Sure