Updated December 12, 2025 — Lesson written by French teacher David Issokson for students who want to learn French online
Learning French verb tenses is challenging because there are so many to choose from. My name is David Issokson, and after having taught French for over ten years, I know you don’t need all of them. To reach fluency, focus on mastering just seven essential verb tenses (explained below). If you master these seven, you will be perfectly equipped for fluent French conversation.
✅ Present tense (le présent)
✅ Compound past (passé composé)
✅ Imperfect (l’imparfait)
✅ Simple future (le futur simple)
✅ Conditional (le conditionnel présent)
✅ Present subjunctive (le présent du subjonctif)
✅ Imperative mood (l’impératif)
List of French verb tenses you must know
1. Present Tense (le présent de l’indicatif)
The first and most fundamental tense you’ll need to focus on is the present tense, also called the present indicative. For this simple guide, we’ll use the verb parler (a regular -ER verb meaning “to speak”).
| Conjugation | Meaning |
| Je parle | I speak, am speaking |
| Tu parles | You speak, are speaking (familiar) |
| Il/elle/on parle | He, she, one speaks, is speaking |
| Nous parlons | We speak |
| Vous parlez | You speak (plural, formal) |
| Ils/elles parlent | They speak |
Simply put, in the first-person singular form, je parle means “I speak” or “I am speaking.” This is the most basic and important French verb tense.
⚠️ Common Mistake: One common mistake is for people to say “Je suis parle” when they want to say “I am speaking.” The correct way to say this is simply: “Je parle” because the English “I am + -ing” is built into the simple French present tense verb form.
However, if you just speak in the present tense, you might make yourself understood, but you won’t be able to express yourself very effectively. So, there are more tenses you’ll have to learn!
👉 Complete lesson: French present tense »
2. Compound past (le passé composé)
The second tense you’ll have to learn is called the passé composé. Simply put, this is the most common past tense used in spoken French. It describes actions that occurred in the past at specific times.
| Conjugation | Meaning |
| J’ai parlé | I spoke |
| Tu as parlé | You spoke (familiar) |
| Il/elle/on a parlé | He, she, one spoke |
| Nous avons parlé | We spoke |
| Vous avez parlé | You spoke (plural, formal) |
| Ils/elles ont parlé | They spoke |
In the “je” form, j’ai parlé translates to “I spoke.”
Example: If you wanted to say, “I spoke to Marie at 6 o’clock,” you’d use the passé composé: “J’ai parlé à Marie à six heures.”
👉 Complete lesson: Passé composé »
3. Imperfect tense (l’imparfait)
With just the present tense and the passé composé, you can talk about what you’re doing and what you did. However, if you want to describe actions that you used to do (habitual actions) or actions that took place over a period of time (ongoing or continuous actions), you must use the imperfect tense or l’imparfait. This tense is also crucial for describing the background or setting of stories.
| Conjugation | Meaning |
| Je parlais | I used to speak, was speaking (or spoke) |
| Tu parlais | You used to speak, were speaking |
| Il/elle/on parlait | He, she, one used to speak, was speaking |
| Nous parlions | We used to speak, were speaking |
| Vous parliez | You used to speak, were speaking |
| Ils/elles parlaient | They used to speak, were speaking |
There’s no direct translation in French for “used to” because the French language requires the usage of the imperfect tense. The same goes for the English construction “was verb + ING.” Thus, je parlais is also “I was speaking.”
👉 Complete lesson: Imperfect tense »
4. Future Tense – le futur simple
Just as the name implies, use the futur simple to talk about events that will occur in the future. The simple future is formed by combining the infinitive of the verb with the present tense ending of the verb avoir (to have).
| Conjugation | Meaning |
| Je parlerai | I will speak |
| Tu parleras | You will speak (familiar) |
| Il/elle/on parlera | He, she, one will speak |
| Nous parlerons | We will speak |
| Vous parlerez | You will speak (formal, plural) |
| Ils/elles parleront | They will speak |
💡 Near Future (futur proche)
In addition to the futur simple, there’s the near future tense or futur proche. This tense is used for future events that have a higher degree of certainty of occurring soon.
The grammatical construction for the futur proche is: aller (to go) in the present tense + infinitive.
Example: Je vais parler. (I’m going to speak, I will speak)
👉 Complete lesson: French future tense »
5. Conditional – le conditionnel présent
After the future tense, you will want to focus on the conditional tense (le conditionnel). The conditional is used for expressing hypothetical actions. It is the “would” tense.
| Conjugation | Meaning |
| Je parlerais | I would speak |
| Tu parlerais | You would speak (familiar) |
| Il/elle/on parlerait | He, she, one would speak |
| Nous parlerions | We would speak |
| Vous parleriez | You would speak (plural, formal) |
| Ils/elles parleraient | They would speak |
As you can see, the construction of this tense is very similar to the futur simple. You take the infinitive and put on the appropriate endings. The conditional endings are the same as the imperfect endings (see section 3).
Example: Je parlerais français si j’avais un bon prof. (I would speak French if I had a good teacher.)
👉 Complete lesson: French conditional tense »
6. Present subjunctive (le subjonctif)
The subjunctive mood can be very challenging for many students. It is used to express wishes, emotions, doubts, necessity, or subjective judgments and often requires two subjects separated by que (that).
| Conjugation | Meaning |
| que je parle | that I speak |
| que tu parles | that you speak (familiar) |
| qu’il/elle/on parle | that he, she, one speaks |
| que nous parlions | that we speak |
| que vous parliez | that you speak (formal, plural) |
| qu’ils/elles parlent | that they speak |
Example: Je veux que tu parles francais. (I want you to speak French.)
Of all the tenses on this page, learn the subjunctive last. It is more advanced and confusing. It’s a better idea to master the present, past, and future first.
👉 Complete lesson: French subjunctive mood »
7. Imperative Mood (l’impératif)
The imperative mood is essential for practical conversation as it is used to give commands, make suggestions, or give instructions. For example, in English, if you said, “Speak!” as in “Speak to me!”
| Form | Affirmative Imperative | Negative Imperative |
| Tu (familiar) | Parle! (Speak!) | Ne parle pas! (Don’t speak!) |
| Nous (Let’s) | Parlons! (Let’s speak!) | Ne parlons pas! (Let’s not speak!) |
| Vous (formal/plural) | Parlez! (Speak!) | Ne parlez pas! (Don’t speak!) |
French verbs — More lessons on FrenchLearner
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👉 Irregular verbs guide »
👉 Regular verbs guide (ER, IR, RE) »
👉 French regular ER verbs »
👉 French regular IR verbs »
👉 French regular RE verbs »
📊 Explore the Top-10 French verbs!
👉 être – to be »
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👉 pouvoir – can, to be able to »
👉 vouloir – to want »
👉 savoir – to know (a fact / how) »
👉 voir – to see »
👉 venir – to come »
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Really nicely explained…. precise and to the point… better than my teacher at school!
I know what you mean now, sorry. What I meant was the ending, they are identical to those of imparfait (e.g. -aient in plural 3) adding the -er before (at least with this verb).
One remark, regarding conditionnel: “As you can see construction of the tense is very similar to the future”
For me it is rather similar to the imparfait tense.
Helpful indeed, merci
Very helpful! Thank you. 🙂