Nov 11, 20182 min read

PRESENT TENSE IN FRENCH 2- MPFG102

Salut chers amis (Hello dear friends) !

Comment allez-vous (how are you doing)?

I trust you are doing just fine. Welcome to today's class, French Grammar for Beginners on Ma Petite France.

Last time, we started talking about the uses of french present tense. We saw the three major equivalent forms in English which are expressed in only one way in French language. In case you missed that, kindly check our previous lesson. https://www.mapetitefranceng.com/blog-1/french-present-tense-m-p-f-g102

Today, we will learn the uses of French present tense as we see more language situations where the tense is used.

The French present tense is used, as in English, to express habitual actions (something one does often or always) taking place in the present or a permanent situation.

Examples :

Je vais à l'école de lundi à vendredi = I go to school from Monday to Friday.

Je regarde des films d'actions = I watch action movies.

La neige est blanche = The snow is white.

Il prie le matin = He prays in the morning.

The French present tense can also be used to express an action that takes place in the nearest future by adding the time indicator that states when exactly. The verb is conjugated in present tense and the time indicator shows when the action will take place.

Examples:

Je voyage demain = I am traveling tomorrow.

Nous allons à Lagos dans trois jours = We are going to Lagos in three days.

Tu viens la semaine prochaine = You are coming next week.

From the above sentences, you can see that the verbs are clearly conjugated in present tense but the actions are not taking place in the present. Rather, they are taking place in the nearest future as shown by the time indicators attached to them.

I do hope this is explicit enough. If you have any questions, kindly drop them in the comment box and I'll respond to them.

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Bonne journée (have a nice day)!