okiteiru_

[hearty rain]

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[tranquil aurora]

13 different conjugations wtf

[steady aurora]

It sounds a lot but it's actually better than you think

Well not better, but less difficult

[tranquil aurora]

is there some rule that helps?

[warped vale]

French verbs are more regular than english and less tenses (or tense constructions I guess) tend to be used overall
Literally 90% of french verbs are -er verbs which are all regular except "aller", meaning you only need to know how to form the tense for one verb to know how to conjugate it for 90% of french verbs. In the last 10% there are regular -ir verbs, and then a bunch of other smaller patterns, but these are mostly very common verbs that you'll be exposed to often enough you'll be able to remember them.

A LOT of the "tenses" in that list are also just compound tenses, aka using a different tense to build it, so you don't need any new knowledge.
In addition to this, a lot of the tenses have interchangeable information and their own regularities, the hardest tense is the present simply because it's the tense with the most irregularities. There's only 1 irregular verb for the "imparfait" tense, for example, which is être, and only requires remembering « ét- »

[steady aurora]

The French tense system is based off of a simple-compound pair. Basically, a tense can be 'simple' or 'compound' depending on whatever the form.
Simple here means that we only have one element, the verb itself. This would be the present tense: Je mange, tu manges, il mange, nous mangeons, vous mangez, ils mangent. We have the verb (manger) changing in accordance to time (present) and person (« je » is first person singular, « tu » is second person singular/informal, etc).
Compound means that we have two elements: An auxiliary verb like « avoir » or « être » plus a past participle. This would be the compound past tense or « passé composé » : J'ai mangé, tu as mangé, il a mangé, nous avons mangé, vous avez mangé, ils ont mangé. Notice that the verb that changes (or is conjugated) is just the auxiliary verb (in this case, avoir); the past participle does not change at all. The auxiliary is always conjugated in its simple equivalent.
Since the passé composé is the compound tense counterpart of the présent, you'll have avoir in the présent. The compound tense describes the past version of the simple so since the présent talks about, well, the present, the passé composé talks about the past.

Why does this matter? Well, if you know how to conjugate a simple tense, you immediately know how to conjugate its compound tense. For example, another simple tense is the imperfect or imparfait, and its compound tense is the pluperfect or plus-que-parfait. If we apply the pattern above, the plus-que-parfait is simply the auxiliary verb conjugated in the imparfait. And, yes, that's what we see:
(1) avoir in the imperfect tense: J'avais, tu avais, il avait, nous avions, vous aviez, ils avaient
(2) manger in the pluperfect tense: J'avais mangé, tu avais mangé, il avait mangé, nous avions mangé, vous aviez mangé, ils avaient mangé

[tranquil aurora]

i hope i understood this properly, these conjugations aren't specific to just this verb they are used in many many other verbs too?

[warped vale]

The only real tenses you'd need to actively "learn" are:

• present
• passé composé (or really just learning the past participle, but everyone learns it using passé composé)
• imparfait
• conditionnel/futur simple (pick one, stems are interchangeable)
• subjunctive

And kinda imperative

All -er verbs are regular in imperative though

[rotund cliff]

yes, manger is a regular -er verb (with a slight twist because it's a -ger verb)
regular -er verbs are the most common group of verbs in French and all follow the same ending patterns

[warped vale]

Aka just use present tense and remove the -s from the tu form

[tranquil aurora]

i see what you mean

the biggest mind break is when the verb changes depending on who its talking about

[steady aurora]

In French, we have 8 simple tenses: présent (present), imparfait (imperfect), futur simple (simple future), conditionnel présent (present conditional), subjonctif présent (present subjunctive), impératif présent (present imperative), passé simple (simple past), and the subjonctif imparfait (imperfect subjunctive).
These 8 give us their equivalent compounds: passé composé (compound past), plus-que-parfait (pluperfect/past perfect), futur antérieur (future perfect), conditionnel passé (past conditional), subjonctif passé (past subjunctive), impératif passé (past imperative), passé antérieur (anterior past), and the subjonctif plus-que-parfait (pluperfect subjunctive) for a total of 16 possible conjugations.

However, in Modern French, the last two are not used (passé simple and subjonctif imparfait) and thus their compounds (passé antérieur and subjonctif plus-que-parfait) are also not used, bringing us to 12 possible tenses. The imperative past is almost never used, bringing us to 11 possible tenses: 6 simple and 5 compounds. For the simples, the differences are not that massive. The present tense is by far the most irregular with the others being more regular.

First off, the conditional present and simple future share the same construction. For the simple future, all you need to do is take your infinitive and then add in the present conjugations of avoir at the end. Don't believe me?
(1) avoir in the present: j'ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont
(2) manger in the simple future: je mangerai, tu mangeras, il mangera, nous mangerons, vous mangerez, ils mangeront

For the conditional present, just instead use the imperfect endings of avoir.
(1) avoir in the imperfect: j'avais, tu avais, il avait, nous avions, vous aviez, ils avaient
(2) manger in the conditional present: je mangerais, tu mangerais, il mangerait, nous mangerions, vous mangeriez, ils mangeraient

[warped vale]

I am
You are
He is

[rotund cliff]

bertie bertying once again

[warped vale]

"be"

[tranquil aurora]

not that

[warped vale]

Idk what you could be talking about then

[warped vale]

Don't use passé simple lol

[tranquil aurora]

oh

[warped vale]

But what about that confuses you

I guess just cuz passé simple looks funny to you? It's a surprisingly regular tense iirc it just looks a bit funky

[tranquil aurora]

the actual verb changes depending on who you are talking about

obviously he is she is they are is operative but theres 5 different variations for what i assume is eaten

[rotund cliff]

French and English both do it

[warped vale]

Well then that's exactly what I meant with I am, you are, he is

[rotund cliff]

French conjugations tend to be more intricate than English's, but it's the same concept

English's?

[warped vale]

Yeah

"than in English" if you want to avoid it ig

Or "than those of English"

[tranquil aurora]

i think the reason for my confusion is the person tense never changes, its still je tu il elle, but the actual word for eating in my eyes does

[steady aurora]

Second off, the imperfect is incredibly regular with the sole exception of être. To conjugate the imperfect, all you need to do is take the nous conjugation (first person plural) in the present, remove the ending, then add the imperfect endings.
(1) Imperfect endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient
(2) Manger in the nous form in the present: nous mangeons => mange-
(3) Add in the endings: Je mangeais, tu mangeais, il mangeait, nous mangions (manger is a bit special, dw about it), vous mangiez, ils mangeaient
Another one, finir:
(1) Imperfect endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient
(2) Finir in the nous form in the present: nous finissons => finiss-
(3) Add in the endings: Je finissais, tu finissais, il finissait, nous finissions, vous finissiez, ils finissaient

Third, for the subjunctive present, all you need is to take the ils conjugation (third person plural) in the present, remove the ending, and then add the imperfect endings.
(1) Subjunctive endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent
(2) Manger in the ils form in the present: ils mangent => mang-
(3) Add in the endings: Je mange, tu manges, il mange, nous mangions, vous mangiez, ils mangent
Another one, finir:
(1) Subjunctive endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent
(2) Finir in the ils form in the present: ils finissent => finiss-
(3) Add in the endings: Je finisse, tu finisses, il finisse, nous finissions, vous finissiez, ils finissent
That being said, the subjunctive is a tad more irregular but compared to the usual present tense, it's way more regular.

[steady aurora]

je tu il elle etc are pronouns, not tense

Tense absolutely changes, it's just that in English the only change is in the third person singular:
I watch, you watch, he/she watches, we watch, you watch, they watch

I walk, you walk, he/she walks, we walk, you walk, they walk

[warped vale]

For most verbs anyways

[steady aurora]

And in the present

No change in the past

[tranquil aurora]

ah right

ill read through your explanation of the tenses thanks!

[warped vale]

With the regularity you almost never come across anything like the whole "lie/lay" thing or "hung/hanged"

[steady aurora]

fortunately we kicked the simple past out

[warped vale]

Lol

[tranquil aurora]

maybe because im used to english tenses its hard to click with the differences

[steady aurora]

English needs to get on with the program and delete the simple past, let it survive only in the past perfect

[steady aurora]

It can take some time to adjust to it, sure

But the basic idea of conjugation is that a verb changes in respect to tense and person. Person here is stuff like perspective (1st person/me/speaker, 2nd person/you/listener, 3rd person/that bloke over there/some rando not in the conversation), number (singular or plural)

what else

[warped vale]

Well in french it doesn't change based on gender

Idk if there's a language where it does

Probably

[tranquil aurora]

german probably

[steady aurora]

Oh yeah that's only with être

German doesn't

[tranquil aurora]

oh thats surprising

[rotund cliff]

nothing else

[warped vale]

Mood ig

Basically tenses tho

Ah we mean within a tense

Mb

[rotund cliff]

basically, a verb changes form based on:

• who is doing the action (subject)
  "J'ai" vs "Il a" ("I have" vs "He has")
• how/when the action is happening (tense)
  "J'ai" but "j'avais" ("I have" vs "I had")

[tranquil aurora]

oh i just got it

[steady aurora]

I'd add when the action is happening since present/imperfect is a time difference

but yes it's like that

[tranquil aurora]

this makes sense now

[steady aurora]

and again since the compound tense version is based off of the simple, getting this means you know how to conjugate the future perfect

of course for some verbs it's a bit of a pain since the stem, the bit underlined, can change

but it's only like

what

20 verbs?

[tranquil aurora]

i thought it was going to have to learn 14 different variations per word

[steady aurora]

The auxiliaries avoir and être use aur- and ser- instead of their infinitives as their stems so always prioritise the auxiliaries

[steady aurora]

Mind you, most of your attention is going to be with the present

so really 80% of your effort is going to be in mastering the present which gives you the other simple tenses which then automatically unlocks their compounds

[tranquil aurora]

ya

thats a relief

[steady aurora]

Oh yeah one more bit

In your screenshot, there's something called the futur proche or the near future

This isn't a tense per se, it's more of a construction

You conjugate the verb « aller (to go) » in the present and then whatever verb you want

If the futur simple is the future tense of English (je mangerai = I will eat), the futur proche is the 'going to + verb' construction (je vais manger = I am going to eat)

[tranquil aurora]

right so conjugate it with the pronoun then add the verb

nous allons manger

we are going to eat?
that type of thing

[warped vale]

Ya

[tranquil aurora]

thanks for the patience

that helps a massive amount

[warped vale]

Most things seem super complicated at first (and often are, in some ways) but can be broken down into much more manageable pieces

[tranquil aurora]

ya

it made me double take when i saw the amount of different ways

i thought in English we have 3 or 4

[warped vale]

If we count compounds english generally uses more imo

[steady aurora]

English has way more

[warped vale]

In regular speech

[tranquil aurora]

it does?

[warped vale]

Yes

For most french tenses you can map it to several english ones

Je mange => I eat, I am eating, I have been eating

[rotund cliff]

conjugation is not easy to master
you don't need to understand it all at all
in the beginning, focus on present tense. It's the most important and complicated of all
then once you're familiar with it, you can add more, one by one
each one is going to be easier as you go

[warped vale]

Je mangeais => I was eating, I used to eat, I would eat(past)

[steady aurora]

Simple future (I will eat), future perfect (I will have eaten), simple future continuous (I will be eating), future perfect continuous (I will have been eating), present (I eat), present continuous (I am eating), simple past (I ate), present perfect (I have eaten), present perfect continuous (I have been eating), past continuous (I was eating), past perfect (I had eaten), past perfect continuous (I had been eating), imperative present (Eat!)

What's that, 13?

Oh fuck the modals

Present conditional (I would eat), present conditional continuous (I would be eating), past conditional (I would have eaten), past conditional continuous (I would have been eating)

17

[tranquil aurora]

ok fair enough english is worse

growing up with it, it becomes second nature

you forget how many different varieties there are

[steady aurora]

The continuous tenses generally map on to their simple ones when you're translating to French

so 'I am eating' and 'I eat' is just « je mange »

I think the future works the same

Shit gets real messy outside of those

but that's a problem for future you

[tranquil aurora]

pass the problem to a more intelligent version of me

[warped vale]

Lol

Dw you'll be fine

It's harder to understand how to use the tenses than to conjugate them once you get past the present, generally speaking

[steady aurora]

After some time you'll get used to it

[tranquil aurora]

windows 7 loading screen in my brain while i figure out which tense to use

[steady aurora]

peak passé composé or imparfait moment

I never realised how ambiguous English's simple past tense could be until I learnt French

[warped vale]

Lol

Yeah

I did thing

Also fun to notice non native errors and think it over in your head

[rotund cliff]

lmao

while helping someone yesterday about passé simple vs imparfait I realized how "toujours" in "j'ai toujours su" acts as one defined moment in the past, and it would be imparfait without that word