181 - French Verb Tenses for Beginners
In this episode, you’ll learn 7 French tenses every beginner should know — with examples and when to use each one. ⏱️✨
After the lesson, head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to practice!
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Transcript
Bonjour à tous, hello everyone — and welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast!
This is episode number 181 — numéro cent quatre-vingt-un.
Today, we’re talking about French verb tenses. ⏱️
I’ll walk you through the main tenses you need to know as a beginner — when to use them, and why they matter. And of course, I’ll also give you plenty of examples!
Before we start, as usual, make sure you’ve got your lesson cheat sheet in front of you so you can follow along and see how everything is written. And after this episode, head to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to practise. It’s free — all the links are in the episode notes!
Let’s get started! 🎧
What’s a verb tense?
A verb tense tells us when something happens — now, before, or later.
In French, we use different tenses to talk about the present, the past, and the future.
You don’t need to master them all at once — but knowing what they are will help you follow along more easily when you hear or read French, and in your future French studies.
Alright, let’s go through the most important ones for beginners:
1️⃣ Le Présent – The Present Tense
We use le présent to talk about what’s happening right now, what happens regularly, or things that are just general facts. This is the tense you’ll use the most as a beginner.
Examples:
Je mange une pomme. (I’m eating an apple.)
Elle va à l’école tous les jours. (She goes to school every day.)
La Terre est une planète. (The Earth is a planet.)
2️⃣ Le Passé Composé – The Passé Composé
We use le passé composé to talk about completed actions in the past. This could be something you did yesterday, last week, last year — anything that is done and over.
Examples:
Hier, j’ai mangé une pizza. (Yesterday, I ate a pizza.)
Elle a visité Paris l’année dernière. (She visited Paris last year.)
Le week-end dernier, on a regardé un film. (Last weekend, we watched a movie together.)
3️⃣ L’Imparfait – The Imperfect Tense
L’imparfait is also a past tense, but we use it differently to the passé composé. This one is used to describe ongoing or repeated actions in the past, and to just describe things or talk about how things used to be.
Examples:
Quand j’étais petit, je jouais dehors tous les jours. (When I was little, I used to play outside every day.)
Quand j’habitais en Bretagne, il pleuvait souvent. (When I was living in Brittany, it was often raining.)
Elle était toujours gentille avec moi. (She was always kind to me.)
Quick note, if you’re not 100% confident when to use passé composé vs imparfait, don’t panic — I’ve got a full episode on that coming soon!
4️⃣ Le Futur Proche – The Near Future
We use le futur proche to talk about things that are going to happen very soon. It’s super useful and very easy to use: just take the verb aller (to go) and add another verb in the infinitive (like manger, regarder, faire etc.).
Examples:
Je vais bientôt apprendre le français. (I’m going to learn French soon.)
On va regarder un film ce soir. (We’re going to watch a movie tonight.)
Il va faire ses devoirs après le dîner. (He’s going to do his homework after dinner.)
5️⃣ Le Futur Simple – The Simple Future
We use le futur simple to talk about actions that will happen later. It’s great for speaking about plans, predictions, or anything scheduled in the future.
Examples:
Demain, je prendrai le train. (Tomorrow, I’ll take the train.)
Elle finira le travail à 17h. (She’ll finish work at 5pm.)
Ce soir, on dînera chez mes parents. (Tonight, we’ll have dinner at my parents’ place.)
6️⃣ Le Conditionnel Présent – The Present Conditional
We use le conditionnel présent to talk about what would happen in certain situations, or to be polite. It’s very common for making polite requests or sharing wishes.
Examples:
Je voudrais un café, s’il vous plaît. (I’d like a coffee, please.) → polite
Est-ce que tu aimerais venir avec nous au théâtre ? (Would you like to come with us to the theatre?)
Avec plus de temps, on voyagerait plus souvent. (With more time, we’d travel more.)
7️⃣ Le Subjonctif – The Subjunctive Mood
This one is a little different — it’s not a tense (it doesn’t show when something happens), but a mood. We use it after certain expressions, usually when we talk about a wish, emotion, doubt, or something that’s not certain yet. You’ll often hear it after phrases like je veux que…, il faut que…, or j’ai peur que….
Examples:
Je veux qu’il réussisse. (I want him to succeed.)
Il faut que tu viennes. (You must come.)
J’ai peur qu’il soit malade. (I’m afraid he’s sick.)
🔁 Quick Recap
Let’s quickly go over everything that we've learned today:
Le Présent → Use it for things happening now, regularly, or general facts.
Le Passé Composé → Use it for completed actions in the past — done and over.
L’Imparfait → Use it for things that used to happen, past habits, or descriptions.
Le Futur Proche → Use it for things that are going to happen very soon.
Le Futur Simple → Use it for future plans, predictions, or scheduled actions.
Le Conditionnel Présent → Use it to be polite or talk about what would happen.
Le Subjonctif → Use it after certain expressions to talk about wishes, emotions, or things that aren’t certain.
And that’s it for today’s episode! I hope that clarifies a little bit what each is used for. Of course, there are more tenses, but let’s focus on those ones first. One by one.
Don’t forget to grab your cheat sheet and head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to practise what we covered today.
Thanks for listening — and I’ll chat with you next week!
À bientôt. 🤍