{"id":121,"date":"2009-08-24T17:29:08","date_gmt":"2009-08-24T21:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=118"},"modified":"2009-08-24T17:29:08","modified_gmt":"2009-08-24T21:29:08","slug":"french-verbs-the-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-verbs-the-present\/","title":{"rendered":"French Verbs – The Present"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s talk a little grammar! \u00a0First of all, French verb phrases can be indicatif<\/em> which expresses an event as being certain whether it occurs in the past, present or future. \u00a0They can be in le\u00a0s<\/em>ubjonctif<\/em> which is used in a subordinate clause to express an assessment or interpretation or it can be used after some conjunctions. \u00a0Verb phrases in French can also be in le <\/em>conditionnel<\/em> which basically expresses what is possible or potential. \u00a0It can also be used to express the future in the past. \u00a0They can also be in l’imp\u00e9ratif<\/em> which is used to express an order. \u00a0L’infinitif<\/em> is an impersonal mood that can take on a simple form (l’infinitif pr\u00e9sent<\/em>) or a compound form (l’infinitif pass\u00e9<\/em>). \u00a0Finally, there’s le participe<\/em>. \u00a0There are two types: the present participle and the past participle.<\/p>\n

Today though, we’ll just discuss le pr\u00e9sent indicatif<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong>
\n1. Je vais<\/strong> \u00e0 la piscine tous les vendredis.<\/em> (I go to the pool every Friday.)
\n2. Les enfants jouent<\/strong> dans la piscine.<\/em> (The children are playing in the pool.)
\n3. Nous sommes<\/strong> \u00e0 la piscine depuis trois heures.<\/em> (We’ve been at the pool for three hours.)
\n4. On va<\/strong> \u00e0 la piscine dans quelques minutes.<\/em> (We’re going to the pool in a few minutes.)
\n5. Ce documentaire de l’\u00e9t\u00e9 en France d\u00e9crit<\/strong> la vie \u00e0 la plage.<\/em> (This documentary on summers in France describes life on the beach.)
\n6. L’eau g\u00e8le<\/strong> \u00e0 32\u00baF<\/em>. \u00a0(Water freezes at 32\u00baF.)
\n7. Si tu viens<\/strong> \u00e0 la plage en ao\u00fbt, nous nous verrons.<\/em> (If you come to the beach in August, we’ll see each other.)<\/p>\n

You should note that in the above sentences, all the verbs are in the simple present tense. \u00a0Unlike in English, you can use the present in French to express a situation that is going on at the time of speaking (ex. 2\/present continuous in English), an event that began in the past and continues into the present (ex. 3\/present perfect in English) and an event that will happen in the immediate future (ex. 4\/be going to in English). \u00a0Like in English, the present indicative can be used to express habits and repetitive events (ex. 1), in an analysis or summary (ex. 5), to express a fact that is always true or a general truth (6) and also to form a hypothesis about the future that is very possible (ex. 7).
\nSo, just from these few points, it is more than obvious that direct translation just doesn’t work. \u00a0You have to get to the point where you’re thinking in French when you speak and write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s talk a little grammar! \u00a0First of all, French verb phrases can be indicatif which expresses an event as being certain whether it occurs in the past, present or future. \u00a0They can be in le\u00a0subjonctif which is used in a subordinate clause to express an assessment or interpretation or it can be used after some…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[386,545],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-french-present-tense","tag-present-verbs-in-french"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}