When students who are learning French in France are asked about the most difficult aspects for them, many mention pronunciation or speaking. However, most respond that the main issue is still grammar and, more specifically, conjugation. But what makes this practice so difficult? Are there mnemonic techniques and tools to help facilitate learning French tenses? What differences can be observed between French and other European languages in this area?
First, you’ve learned that there are three groups of
verbs in French.
The first group includes verbs ending in
-er except for the verb
aller, the second group consists of verbs ending in
-ir with a present participle ending in
-issant (
choisir,
finir,
fleurir, …) The third group includes all other verbs (
aller, prendre, dormir, entendre,…).
Therefore,
, using a French
conjugation guide should become second nature because it’s impossible to memorize every existing verb form. Even native speakers get confused and must refer to a grammar guide to settle a doubt about the spelling of a difficult verb. Most of the time, learning conjugation consists of reading and acquiring a lesson. This is followed by practice exercises and systematization that help assess one’s skills. But the hardest part remains: using these verbs orally.
Expressing an opinion in the subjunctive, narrating a story by alternating the passé composé and the imparfait, or presenting a project in the futur simple are tasks that prove you have mastered these tenses. There are plenty of difficulties, and sometimes you don’t always need a logical explanation! For example, we write
il défend with a final
d (verb
défendre) but
il peint with a final
t (verb
peindre).
Of course, you can remember that the verb mourir only has one R because “one dies only once,” but that refers to the infinitive of the verb, not the conjugated forms! For past participle endings, the best technique is to ask what the feminine adjective is. For example, we write "j’ai réduit t" because the corresponding adjective is "réduite," "j’ai pri s" because the feminine of the adjective is "prise," and so on. The difficulties are often related to the spelling of verbs. For example, the verb "être" has thirty-two different written forms! But there are also verbs like "courir" that have a similar pronunciation even with different personal pronouns ( je cours, il court, ils courent).
“Si j’aurais su, j’aurais pas venu!” All French people recognize this line. It is taken from La Guerre des boutons, a film inspired by Louis Pergaud’s book. A young boy, Petit Gibus, keeps repeating it whenever he faces a problem. That’s why schoolchildren learn in class that “Si n’aiment pas les rais” to remember that the word si is never immediately followed by the conditional. The correct form is therefore: “Si j’avais su, je ne serais jamais venu.”
Devenir, revenir, monter, rester, sortir, venir, aller, naître, descendre, entrer, rentrer, tomber, retourner, arriver, mourir, partir. Do these verbs evoke anything for you? These are, of course, the sixteen verbs that are conjugated with the auxiliary verb être. To remember them, think of the phrase: Dr and Mrs Vandertramp. This is a mnemonic device that takes the first letter of each verb ( Devenir, Revenir, Monter, Rester,…)
It’s better to follow a progression in learning verb tenses. The most common order is as follows: present/futur proche/recent past/passé composé/simple future/imparfait/present and past conditional. Then come the plus-que-parfait, the subjunctive, or the passé simple. As for the indicative mood, you know there are four simple tenses and four compound tenses. But what is a mood, and how can you remember the names of all the moods? A mood is a way of considering the action represented by the verb. An action, fact, or state can be real, probable, or imaginary. Thus, the subjunctive can refer to a will, a desire, a judgment, a feeling, etc. To memorize the moods, remember that the first three begin in the same way ( infinitive, indicative, imperative). The conditional, participle, subjunctive, and gerund are the other four.
What tools can be used to memorize conjugations?
Traditional tables are still popular with some people. For those who prefer drawing and writing, mind maps or heuristic cards are a good alternative. They are colorful, lively, and personalized. Their tree or star shape is ideal for representing endings or different tense values. If you prefer flashcards, feel free to use them: it’s another effective way to review. For the verbs to be learned, teachers at the International Centre of Antibes will provide you with a grammar guide, but you can also find a list of the top hundred most frequent verbs. To learn
irregular French verbs (aller, devoir, s’asseoir, essayer, paraître, venir, faire, …), the simplest way is also to learn them at your own pace.
In English, the present continuous is constructed differently. French, on the other hand, does not use the auxiliary verb "être" and the present participle. As for the preterite, it can correspond to both the French passé simple, imparfait, or passé composé. But it’s especially for the future that the structures differ. The English can say: When I am rich, I’ll buy a big house, while French requires the use of the simple future.
As for Italian, it uses the subjunctive more frequently than French. The imperfect subjunctive (which is rarely used by the French!) is often used instead of the imperfect indicative in hypothetical sentences. Spaniards also use certain tenses differently. The passé simple, which has a literary usage in French, is used in Spanish for actions that took place at a specific moment and are finished at the time of speaking. Finally, given that there are irregular verbs, it’s probably the French passé composé that most closely resembles the passé simple.
