All French Verb Tenses Simplified

Learning the many verb tenses (and moods) of the French language one by one can be intimidating for French Learners due to their complexity. Getting an overview of each one can make it more clear why there are so many, and can hopefully give learners the courage and confidence to slowly learn each one in more depth. In this video, I go over when each verb tense is used, some tips on how to conjugate each one and some resources that can really help you improve your knowledge on French verb tenses and how to use them correctly.
1) Le Présent (de l'Indicatif) - 0:33
2) Le Passé Composé - 1:24
3) L'Imparfait (de l'Indicatif) - 2:42
4) Le Passé Récent - 3:38
5) Le Plus-Que-Parfait (de l'Indicatif) - 4:06
6) Le Futur Proche - 4:45
7) Le Futur Simple - 5:17
8) Le Futur Antérieur - 5:54
9) Le Subjonctif (Présent et Passé) - 6:43
10) L'Impératif (Présent) - 8:22
11) Le Conditionnel (Présent et Passé) - 9:06
12) Le Gérondif (Présent et Passé) - 10:24
"Dead" Tenses - 11:42
Useful Resources for Improving Your Ability to Correctly Use and Conjugate French Verb Tenses - 12:53

[@adeleauclair9080]

Just a small thing, at 6:20 if you say "je sentirai mieux" it means "i will smell better" so you have to add a "me" before to say that the subject (je in the exemple) is the one feeling better so -> je me sentirai mieux (Sentir = to smell or to have a physical feeling Se sentir = to feel an emotion)

[@YeonHann]

I am French

[@qwentiin_]

I am french and this comment is 100% true

[@charleahar]

Also I can’t tell if he has god awful pronunciation or if he’s just québécoise

[@gabcruch]

j'y ai pensé aussi

[@dheerajkhanal7251]

thanks for explaining this but i find it really difficult because i find it confusing while using other pronouns like te, nous and other. eg: "nous nous _____" in a sentence. Sometimes i think i can understand french and sometimes i don't.

[@ArtComptant]

as a french speaker, i found this video really well made !

[@bib6285]

ton google traduction a bug je crois...

[@fury_1404]

@@bib6285 il a très bien écrit

[@bib6285]

@@fury_1404 mdrr oui le moi du passé est vraiment con

[@helloiexist_43]

Me too

[@val-8073]

Un passé très proche tout de même kek

[@sachinnair1613]

How does this video have less than 500 views? This is exactly what I was looking for!

[@FrenchLearningHub]

Glad to hear! :)

[@RealTrinity]

Not more 😏

[@wetmenyolo9919]

@@FrenchLearningHub Love the video but your pronunciation is really throwing me off from watching :(

[@Galaxytron-pr2lt]

its has 21k views now

[@tomsmith1803]

because people don't study French.

[@enoxis1469]

Very clear video. Just be careful at 6:24, “Je sentirai mieux” is not correct, it is the reflected verb “se sentir” (to feel) so you would say “Je ME sentirai mieux”.

[@enoxis1469]

@@smalls5001 I’m French, it helps 😂

[@ChildDevourer24]

@@enoxis1469 ye a little bit

[@kiwilastar]

im french

[@samikobayashi3468]

Note to any learners that it’s not incorrect in the sense that it’s always reflexive, it’s just that “sentir” is either smell/taste or to feel something in a physical sense, whereas reflexively (“se sentir”) is to feel something emotionally. :)

[@pauselab5569]

Les deux se disent dependant du contexte

[@Kevbot6000]

I remember taking French in high school and knowing Spanish made it A LOT easier to pick up conjugation, specifically the imperfect and the subjunctive as those exist in Spanish as well with essentially the same rules in when to use them.

[@adr77510]

A Spanish speaker here too, and for the most part I actually found Spanish to be unhelpful with French grammar. French vocabulary however was much easier. The subjunctive in the two languages is pretty different. You use the subjunctive for espero que or no pienso que in Spanish while not doing so in French. The past is also set up differently, since there is no percent past in French. Yo he comido is similar to j’ai mangé in terms of grammatical structure, but they mean different things. J’ai mangé actually means the same thing as yo comí, but they have no similarity. French also doesn’t have the present continuous while Spanish does, and Spanish doesn’t have the anterior past while French does The conditional, future and imperfect are the only tenses that follow the same rules in both languages

[@Kevbot6000]

@@adr77510 I guess I should clarify that I grew up speaking Spanish and English and found myself using Spanish a lot more to try and grasp the French language as opposed to English. The mere existence of the same or similar concept in Spanish, as opposed to it not existing whatsoever in English, made me understand it a lot better than my classmates who spoke ONLY English. That’s not to say knowing English doesn’t help with French either (like a third of English vocabulary comes from French) but I found knowing Spanish more useful in understanding the grammar. For example you said the imperfect has the same rules in both languages, there is no such thing as an imperfect in English, hence why I would be able to grasp that verb conjugation a lot easier as opposed to monolingual English speakers.

[@adr77510]

@@Kevbot6000 that’s true, compared to English grammar Spanish is much more useful for French. I guess what I was trying to say was that a language like polish, which also has conjugation and some grammatical similarities with French, would be equally useful in terms of grammar as Spanish. Imperfect was definitely helpful though to already know. It’s a very tough concept for English speakers.

[@basti6643]

@@adr77510 yo he comido and yo comí are essentially the same in modern Spanish

[@adr77510]

@@basti6643 they might be used practically interchangeably, but it still would be wrong grammar. Saying, "Hace años, comí un bocadillo genial," sounds much better than, "Hace años, yo he comido un bocadillo genial"

[@julienr7094]

oh j'avais jamais vu des cours pour apprendre le français alors que je suis français. En vrai je trouve que c'est bien fait, c'est un très bon entrainement, surtout avec notre langue qui est plutôt compliqué 😅Bonne chance à vous

[@julienr7094]

@Bosça değil hoşça kalın! Yes, it is true that it is very useful in life to know several languages. Especially since it is more pleasant for people if we speak in their language

[@julienr7094]

@Bosça değil hoşça kalın! Thank you, but I'm learning and I still need to learn

[@julienr7094]

​@Bosça değil hoşça kalın! Yes that's right

[@KOSEIJULIUS]

@İsim lazım değil Juste on ne dit plus souvent "des" au lieu de "de les" aussi on dit "j'ai besoin d'apprendre" et pas "j'ai besoin de apprendre" sinon bonne chance

[@festox1550]

@İsim lazım değil because the rules of the French language were created by poets and they tried to make the sounds more rounded and more pleasant to hear

[@hadima7774]

Bro summed 10 years of me learning french in school in ten minutes 💀 ☠️ And i understood it better than the past 10 years 💀 ☠️ 💀 ☠️ 💀 ☠️

[@fumuki9281]

Sorry our language is so complicated lmao But when you get to know it you realize it's such a beautiful language, good luck everyone in your learning 😊

[@carthkaras6449]

No, french isn't complicated. if a french finds it complicated it's because the education system is really elitist. The french elites are the most educated in Europe but the middle class is the less educated and this is why France ranks so poorly in the OECD ranking. Then, stop to complain about your own language, it's not your language that is difficult, it's your school system that makes you bad at it.

[@finnvictorsson]

@@carthkaras6449 POV: you have no life

[@carthkaras6449]

@@finnvictorsson you can think whatever you want ... But sometimes it's better to point out concrete issues that have a huge impact on a society. The average citizen is generally more concerned about the price of gazoil when he should be worried about the education system that perpetuates social classes. Go do your tiktok dances if you are not interrested.

[@finnvictorsson]

@@carthkaras6449 okay

[@Cam3-]

@@carthkaras6449 Je vis en France et je suis pas d'accord avec ce que tu dis

[@wefuckwithhingesheavy7710]

this was the perfect vid most of the other videos was just rules,while u act explained what the tenses were and the incorporation of the memes was a great idea

[@FrenchLearningHub]

Thank you for the kind words!

[@nayandeepyadav8790]

You killed the tense fear man, merci beaucoup

[@marcosdrummer]

Incredible research work to condense such a difficult topic into a 14-minute video. This is maybe the best summary I've ever seen on French conjugation. Congrats!

[@h2omelin40]

Imagine the amount of work put into this deceivingly small 13-minute video, immense respect. Thank you so, so much (I will be commenting to try to help with the algorithm bc you deserve it)!!

[@amandadavies..]

This was absolute heaven for me at school. Found it all extremely easy and it was such a pleasure to learn. I hated everything other than languages ( I did Spanish and Italian too) and would have gone crazy if I hadn't had those to break up all the stuff I hated.

[@MisiaJulia]

I appreciate all the time, organisation and effort it took to put this video together. Thank you

[@divakaranmashmash2229]

A great work .Thank you, you did really great job to collect all those information in just 13 minute .This is what I was looking for a long time. many many thanks

[@iamURHO]

Thank you! You're the BEST French teacher online.

[@zachsavia1205]

I took French all four years of high school and now am in my second year of college as a French minor, this video will be incredibly helpful to me. Thank you!

[@axelnovati]

Very well done material. Truly a video to watch while studying carefully. 14 minutes that can easily be converted in weeks of study.

[@user-zp7in1vu8u]

J'ai pris des notes et essayé de comprendre jusqu'à la fin de la vidéo, je n'ai jamais abandonné😂je me félicite, merci beaucoup.❤

[@user-jj3su1on4x]

This is an absolutely golden content. I will come back to rewatch many times. Thank you for doing this!

[@dinab7852]

You have the BEST grammar videos on KZbin for FSL learners. I assign them all to my middle & high school students for homework. Thank you so much for this channel!

[@andrewwang9138]

Dang my dude needs some subscribers. Thanks for the video! I'm subbed for life!

[@FrenchLearningHub]

Merci Andrew! Glad you liked the video 👍🏻😁

[@akankshapendharkar1387]

Great video! The explanations were thorough yet still easy to grasp.

[@fury_1404]

Just be careful Je ME sentirai mieux is I will feel better BUT Je [nothing here] sentirai mieux is I will smell better ( with the nose ) if you want to say how people smell you it is je sentirai bon ou mal but not mieux

[@paolappsd]

this is a super helpful video and i truly appreciate your work! 14 minutes i was ghastly frustrated, staring at the cold, hard french grammar textbook at my desk. And now everything has only gotten much explicit with your well-explained video. In my culture, we'd say things thrice to suggest its significance. right now i just wanna say: thank you, thank you, and thank you!!!

[@stevesamah4018]

This is the most helpful French Language video I've ever seen. If only I saw it when I started learning French it would have saved me years of trouble struggling with verbs.

[@autinspare]

This is best video on French tenses I've found in 3 years of study. Thank you.

[@adithyasriram7955]

Omg, where have you been in all my French-learning adventure, this is so well explained! Thank you so much! Subbed and looking forward to more concepts! :D (Although I do have an idea, it would be amazing if you made a video on “Mettez le verbes au temps convenables“ as there are not many good Edu videos out there, if this happens it would help a load of people out there (: )

[@fury_1404]

@@rexalpha2.0 c’est super compliqué comme langue les mots sont compliqués beaucoup d’irréguliers et aucuns ne se ressemblent , énormément de règles de grammaire etc

[@fury_1404]

@@rexalpha2.0 et vu comment tu parles français stp ferme la

[@NitikaDupati]

omg pls so true , i always struggle with this topic everywhere pls pls pls

[@TenderSparkle5]

Bravo! Merci beaucoup. Glad I came across your video. The content is extremely well presented. Keep up the good work!

[@lalitalopes]

Je ne crois pas qu'une vidéo de 13 :40 minutes était plus effective que six mois de cours. Merci pour tout !

[@malx_heartz]

Thank you! I had a test (in school) about how we conjugate verbs and this video really helped me. I got a 19/20!!

[@OTFdyl]

thanks ,i loved how it was quick yet talked in detail and how this is helped me a lot . you would love if you can do more , for example verbs and what happens to them in each tenses . love how he talked a ear of school french under 10 mins . thank you soo much !!!

[@april_stxrs]

As a Student in French immersion I am terrified as to why this came up on my recommendation page and I will proceed to cry

[@sathmisadhamila8667]

This video is really very convenient..and is very interesting to listen to cuz of the style he's teaching. Very clear. Thank You❤️

[@PrityVisuals]

Exactly what i was looking for. Subscribed!! 🙌🏻

[@onepunch1019]

This was a great and informative video. Literally have a French quiz next week

[@FrenchLearningHub]

Merci ! Good luck on your quiz 😁

[@saharirm6090]

Thanks for your practical content❤️

[@heavysaur149]

Even as a French, this video teach me a lot.

[@abdelazizsissaoui2411]

This is legendary, maaad respect to you sir thank you

[@redane4757]

This really an underrated video thanks man for ur efforts ❤️

[@anyadua9959]

SUPER helpful video.. most websites/videos/textbooks make choosing which verb to use seems so complicated

[@radeshl7441]

I watch this video every time before my French exam🤩🤩. Really very useful for revision

[@eglvoland4162]

A golden rule for the "conditionnel" : verbe devoir: --> futur : je devrai --> imparfait : je devais You have to take the beginning of the future tense and the end of the "imparfait" --> je devrais And it works fine with irregular verbs

[@Kam-vc4nn]

I am only 2.5 mins into the video and omg u deserve more views

[@aaryeahhh06]

This channel is all I need Why am I finding you now????? Omg thanks for this so muchhh 💜

[@user-br9nq1ww8s]

way more than a month thank you this vid its easy, summarised and fun

[@manonmaoui]

your videos are amazing, so helpful and easy to understand! thank you so much for your effort

[@tgf6194]

1) Le Présent (de l'Indicatif) - 0:33 2) Le Passé Composé - 1:24 3) L'Imparfait (de l'Indicatif) - 2:42 4) Le Passé Récent - 3:38 5) Le Plus-Que-Parfait (de l'Indicatif) - 4:06 6) Le Futur Proche - 4:45 7) Le Futur Simple - 5:17 8) Le Futur Antérieur - 5:54 9) Le Subjonctif (Présent et Passé) - 6:43 10) L'Impératif (Présent) - 8:22 11) Le Conditionnel (Présent et Passé) - 9:06 12) Le Gérondif (Présent et Passé) - 10:24 "Dead" Tenses - 11:42

[@Meowfies1]

Thank u for doing this so much

[@ToiletArmy]

arigato

[@adhamhisham2133]

Thank you so much this cleared up so many things for me that I used to see and be frightened of. Thank you ❤️

[@gapethabana-yy8qk]

This guy makes French so easy! And I enjoy watching the video it's fun

[@dreamydoom8365]

This video was very informative. Thank you!

[@FrenchLearningHub]

De rien ! Glad you found it useful 👍🏻

[@hannofranz7973]

An excellent crash course on the use of the tenses in French

[@lorenzopassero8509]

About the subjonctif, in Italian we still use it after to think, to believe, to hope (pensare, credere, sperare), but common mistakes among native speakers are to replace it with the indicative (in other expressions as well). Simplification is always driving linguistical processes, even right in front of our eyes

[@samikobayashi3468]

That sounds like French speakers using the subjunctive after “après que” (after) since “avant que” (before) requires both the subjunctive and technically the ne explétif, even though “après que” should be followed by the indicative. Après que je suis rentré chez moi, je suis allé dormir. Il doit finir ses devoirs avant que vous (ne) partiez. In French, “penser” and “croire” are followed by the indicative in the affirmative (and as a statement), but in the negative or the interrogative, they take the subjunctive: Je pense qu’elle est chez lui. Je ne pense pas qu’elle soit chez elle. Penses-tu (Est-ce que tu penses) qu’elle soit chez elle ?

[@lorenzopassero8509]

@@samikobayashi3468 Avant and après que function in the same way as in Italian (prima and dopo che), but interestingly enough, we make the opposite mistake: often, we put the indicative after prima che (avant que). It looks like Italian naturally is heading towards the simplification of the indicative/subjunctive dichotomy and the passato prossimo/passato remoto (passé composé and passé simple): the passato remoto is still used in daily speech when telling stories that happened in the far past, and half of Italy still uses it frequently (yes, Southern Italy is no less than the North), but still it looks like an evolution path on which French is more ahead and Italian is following. Another example is the transitivization of "salire" (to go up), "scendere" (to go down), "uscire" (go out) "entrare" (go in, come in). Contrarily to what people may expect, these "mistakes" are found in the South, but are normality in French. "Scendere la spazzatura" (to bring the garbage bin downstairs), "entrare le scarpe dentro perché piove" (to bring inside the shoes since it's raining) are all mistakes that should be replaced with "portare giù" and "portare dentro", but to which a French wouldn't probably be baffled at all. It's interesting to see how the evolution of Italian might bring it closer or farther to other Romance languages that have always been spoken (unlike Italian which stayed a literary language used only by the elites and cultured people when travelling among the city-states only until the 1950s and that boomed after it became the language of millions of people. Who knows how long will it take for us to have the same difficulties with Dante or Boccaccio as English speakers have reading Shakespeare or Chaucer.

[@charlestardif5377]

Très bonne explication et merci d’expliquer cette langue qui a tant d’exception! Traduction : Really good explanation et thanks to explain this complicated language!

[@rigierish3807]

I can’t believe (that) I’m a French person who’s learning French as well as English through a video in English about French verb tenses… XD Besides that, I’d like to give a tip to people who struggle with “le subjonctif” ; there is nothing hard about it, I don’t understand why you struggle with it if you know grammatical rules in English : you just have to ask yourself two questions : “can I put ‘that’ next to the verb in English” and “is there a conjunctive adverb”. If yes, then you have to use “le subjonctif”, if not, then you can stick to the regular tense. The only exceptions I can think of is for example : “I have to help him” but the good side is (that) you can bypass it by changing a little your sentence, saying : “Je dois l’aider” instead of : “Il faut que je l’aide”. So here, both work which means (that) you can still avoid using subjunctive if you’re not sure. Same for : “I need to leave”. You can say : “il faut que je parte” but you can also say : “Je dois partir”. The first one is more polite and soft but it’s basically the same. Examples : “I need to learn”, no “that” so use present tense : “Je dois apprendre” (as I said before for “I need” or “you have”, you can also say : “il faut que j’apprenne”). “I’ve heard (that) it was possible”, there can be a “that”, so it becomes in French : “J’ai entendu que c’était possible”. Here, you can’t say : “J’ai entendu c’était possible” (or you can but…… it’s grammatically incorrect, some people say that though, the same way some people say : “le problème que je t’ai parlé hier” instead of : “le problème dont je t’ai parlé” ; it’s the same kind of mistake people make but seems to be ok to do) You maybe noticed I added “that” in parentheses here and there in my text : I did it so you can see concrete examples where the subjunctive must be used. (The reason it’s in parentheses by the way - and that’s why I kind of understand why it can be a little difficult - is (that) in English, you can totally get rid of the word “that” in most cases, especially when it is in front of a verb (which I’m not getting used to, precisely for the reason that it’s indispensable in French, depending on how you conjugate your sentences, but subjunctive it’s still used quite often))

[@samikobayashi3468]

Yeah, the base rule you learn first is that the que of a conjunctive phrase triggers the subjunctive, and then you learn the exceptions, of which there are many…but really, it’s a lot clearer if you understand how the subjunctive works from the perspective of the irrealis. Also, it’s good to know that you don’t use the subjunctive if the subject is the same - either use the infinitive or reword the sentence. ^^

[@amitakhare5866]

Damn.... I mean hats off to this dude... He made me revise all the tenses so easily. Thanks dude

[@rahulbhandari4892]

This video alone solved a lot of my doubts. Gold!

[@nemanyaraikah]

Such a helpful and brief video!!! Thanks

[@RealShit-rw3nu]

Congrats on 600K views!! Your video was very helpful

[@marupar2292]

with this video I learned more English grammar than what I learned in four years like eleven years age. Nice Job!

[@johnleaper9711]

Fantastic (except for the background noise (music?)). Exactly what I was looking for. The icing on the cake would be a link where i can print all this out, I’ve writers cramp trying to keep up with you. MANY thanks for taking the time to produce the video, very helpful.

[@jimmyrichard1704]

I am litteraly watching this as a french student to learn french verbs

[@rusty2648]

Thanks for the information! Love your videos keep it up!

[@simplyrxnanjay9]

This is a life saver thank you, you have earned a subscriber it was just the thing I was looking for before my exam

[@OpelsiSq]

Epic editing dude, simple explanations, funny memes 😎

[@audereestfacere2858]

knowing spanish, catalan and italian this is like a remix of all three languages together

[@lovebarve954]

Nailed it !!!! God bless 🙌

[@CoconutFarms]

Thanks for making this video!

[@permanant]

I am French revising for my final test… This is great, great explanations

[@donyaphillippe8543]

Loved the completeness and using the same sentence for each form...made it easy to envision...merci!!

[@FrenchLearningHub]

Happy it helped you out! :)

[@diego-fc6oq]

Great video, it's exactly what I was looking for

[@Renee-Heal-The-Eagle]

That thumbnail at the start is exactly me.

[@FrenchLearningHub]

The life of a French learner is tough 😅

[@Kitty294_]

Oh I definitely need this I have family who speak French and I want to be able to communicate with them in both French and English

[@liome8747]

Que Dieu vous benisse!! Ce façon que vous avons utilisé est très facile pour les commenceurs . Hahaha(don't laugh correct me instead) . please let's give commenting in french a stab to get used. Why people are not viewing, liking and subscribing this very ideal channel ever? Love your work brother , good Job. Thumbs up .

[@TheMastreek]

look at the videos, cause it's new and shiny C:

[@shin__4935]

Cette* (UNE façon)

[@italianluobinghe]

Try to translate this: j'étais en pleine forme mais je ne voulais pas aller à l'école.

[@Dedi369]

jesus christ

[@mitekat]

Omg 😱 very useful and quick reminder for everything. Thank you

[@user-zu7ok1mm1j]

I've just started learning French one week ago.... And this 'verb tense stuff' .....ehhhhhhhh I'll cross that bridge when I get there..., and I'll make sure to come back here. Thanks

[@SS-rb5ys]

Thank you so much, because of you I now understand these much better 😊

[@venyamehta3726]

Man thanks a lot you deserve everything!!!❤❤

[@sic_infit]

this must be treasure!!!! thank you with all of my heart >

[@jayeguan3677]

so helpful. nervous as i am getting back on french this fall in college. this is so hard but much better explained than in school.

[@learnurduwithsara1068]

This is such a great video. Thank you 👍

[@fluffycanterbury]

This is so awesome 👏👏👏 thank you!

[@laylakaye8127]

ty for this was amazing! Will recommend

[@leenasemar6991]

My French is very rusty and I want to relearn it. This video is perfect. Thank you

[@sandhyasathya5629]

How come i missed u? ..thank you so much!!! :)

[@FrenchLearningHub]

Avec plaisir ! :)

[@swisskiwi1478]

As an anglophone ESL teacher of predominantly Francophone students this was very well done (just note one incorrect sentence where you should have used the verb sentir in the reflexive form - around minute 6.15-25 if I remember correctly). Thank you.

[@Wissalune]

I've been studying this for 7 years and you did it in this 13 min vid lol😂😂

[@juliawhitby8037]

Brilliant clear teaching many thanks Julia

[@maneeshpardeshi4032]

Great video. I never had a change to talk French directly with someone. Even when I was in France I used to talk in English. This will give me some courge :)

[@jozefienvoets2744]

As someone whose birth language is dutch, learned english from youtube, and is learning french in school, it's kind of weird to hear these two languages in one sentence.

[@sellajamela2932]

Wow thank you so much... This has been so helpful you have no idea

[@aymenfouad3915]

if you guys have difficulties for that it's normal even me (french) and lots of students think that's hard so you guys are not alone

[@ramonafernandez1232]

🥲

[@yousafrana5268]

This is amazing! Saving my exams rn!!

[@andreabrown3086]

This is absolutely the BEST explanation and guide to the french tenses that I have come across....and just in time! I'm in french language school and this verb tense thing is kicking my butt !! There are not enough verb charts in the world to keep this stuff straight

[@thejanachandupa5818]

not every heros wearing capes sometimes they doing a youtube channel.. thank you very much sire.. hats off

[@roshnimohan7880]

Thank you so much! Really appreciate it! :)

[@TugaHuga]

Bruh this was insanely helpful. How have I not come across this before?!

[@lauraodonnell5172]

Thank you! This was very helpful.

[@reopetra7841]

Thank you for this vid, it was super helpful. I'm studying for my Brevet Blanc (as an anglophone) so this was great. :))

[@sillymatilda]

Wonderful video. And thank you for info about dead tenses in French. I wanted to pickup some books at library and a friend of mine who knows some French said he couldn't understand some verb conjugations and told me to stick to non-fictional books/journals, instead of fiction and unrealistic/fantasy settings and characters.