One of the essential functions of verbs is to express distinctions in time. Tenses serve (a) to situate events as taking place in the present, past or future; (b) to indicate the time at which events occur relative to other events. The verb forms for each of the tenses mentioned in this chapter are given in full in Chapter 7.
(a) The present tense is used to refer to an action or a state of affairs which exists at the time of speaking:
(b) It is used to express timeless facts:
(c) It is used to refer to an action which is habitual:
(d) In certain contexts, notably when the context provides a clear temporal reference to the future, it can refer to the future:
(e) Some writers use the present tense to refer to past events when they wish to render the past event more immediate. This can be found particularly in the writings of historians, journalists, novelists, and so on:
English indicates that an event is in progress via a special form of the verb called the ‘progressive’: ‘be + V-ing’, e.g. ‘I am thinking’. French does not have an equivalent special form for this. The English present progressive will normally be translated into French by the simple present:
However, if it is important to stress the length of time, or the simultaneity of the event, French can use en train de:
Thus, when French uses a present tense, this may correspond either to the simple present or the present progressive of English. The meaning will depend on the context. For example, Je promène mon chien will be ‘I walk my dog’ in the first example below, but ‘I am walking my dog’ in the second:
English has a form of the verb called the ‘perfect’: ‘have + V-ed/V-en’, e.g. ‘I have walked’, ‘He has spoken’. It is used for reference to an event which happened in the past, but whose consequences continue into the present. In some cases the English perfect will be translated by the simple present in French:
Three forms are available to express PAST events:
| The imperfect: | Je jouais du piano |
| The simple past (past historic): | Je jouai du piano |
| The compound past (perfect): | J'ai joué du piano |
(a) This tense is used to describe ongoing past events without reference to a time of starting or finishing:
| Pierre lisait | Pierre was reading |
| Il était tard | It was late |
| La ville dormait | The town was sleeping |
In narratives, the imperfect typically provides a background of ongoing events against which particular completed events are acted out. If the narrative is writ ten, these completed events will be in the compound past and/or simple past; if the narrative is spoken, they will be in the compound past (see 10.3.3):
(b) It also typically refers to an habitual action in the past. This is generally described in English through the use of the forms ‘used to’ or ‘would’:
Since ‘would’ can also express the conditional in English, it is important for the English speaker to distinguish the ‘would’ which corresponds to the French imperfect from the ‘would’ which corresponds to the French conditional. If ‘would’ is imperfect, it should be possible to replace it with ‘used to’ and still have a grammatical sentence. If substitution of ‘would’ by ‘used to’ produces an ungrammatical sentence, it is a conditional:
(See 10.4.2 for the conditional tense. See Chapter 11.3.1 for the use of ‘would’.)
(c) It can be used to describe completed past events where the speaker or writer wishes to make the past event more immediate by presenting it as if it were in progress:
The simple past tense refers to completed events in the past which are not seen as having any particular relevance to the present from the point of view of the speaker. Nowadays, the simple past (past historic) is usually only used in writing (including literature aimed at small children) and in very formal spoken French (e.g. very formal speeches).
The compound past tense refers to a completed event in the past. In contrast to the simple past (past historic), however, it may refer to an action in the past whose effect continues into the present. It is available both in spoken and writ ten French:
In some texts the simple past and the compound past are used together. The simple past refers to completed events which do not give rise to consequences continuing into the present, from the perspective of the writer. The compound past, by contrast, refers to past events whose consequences do continue to have present relevance, from the perspective of the writer. For example, the following extract from a newspaper article marking the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the French airman and novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, opens with the following passage:
Le 31 juillet 1944, quand un officier porta [simple past] officiellement disparu le Lightning P38 no. 223 piloté par Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, un colosse trop à l’étroit dans sa combinaison d’aviateur est entré [compound past] dans la légende
On 31 July 1944, when an officer officially reported as lost the Lightning P38 no. 223 piloted by Antoine de Saint- Exupéry, a giant of a man, too big for his aviator’s suit, became a legend
The simple past porta describes an event which is seen as over and done with; the compound past est entré describes an event which is seen as having a continuing consequence for the present, from the perspective of the writer: Saint- Exupéry became and still is a legendary figure.
Here is a literary example taken from the novel L’Eté meurtrier by Sébastien Japrisot. The completed events are in the compound past because, although written, this particular piece of narrative is told in the first person from the point of view of one of the characters, giving the effect of a spoken narrative. These events are set against a descriptive background defined by the imperfect:
J’ai connu Gabriel [compound past – completed event] en avril 1945, quand nous avons fui Berlin [compound past – completed event], et que je suivais [imperfect – background context] avec ma mère et d’autres réfugiés, les colonnes des soldats qui allaient [imperfect – background context] vers le sud. C’était dans un village [imperfect – background context] un matin très tôt, près de Chemnitz. Nous avions déjà perdu ma cousine Herta [pluperfect – see 10.5.1 – earlier completed event] qui avait trois ans de plus que moi [imperfect – background context] entre Torgën et Leipzig, parce qu’elle avait trouvé un camion et nous un autre [pluperfect – see 10.5.1 – earlier completed event]. Et c’est ce matin- là que j’ai perdu ma mère [compound past – completed event]. Je crois qu’elle a changé de direction [compound past – completed event], qu’elle est allée vers Kassel [compound past – com pleted event], à l’ouest, où elle avait des amis [imperfect – background context] . . .
I met Gabriel in April 1945 when we fled from Berlin, and when I was following, with my mother and other refugees, the columns of soldiers going south. It was in a village very early one morning, near Chemnitz. We had lost my cousin Herta, who was three years older than me, between Torgën and Leipzig because she had found one lorry, and we another. And it was the same morning that I lost my mother. I believe she changed direction, and that she went towards Kassel, to the West, where she had friends . . .
The simple past tense refers to completed events in the past which are not seen as having any particular relevance to the present from the point of view of the speaker. For example, consider the following narrative from another novel by Sébastien Japrisot, La Dame dans l’auto avec des lunettes et un fusil. Here a series of events are over and done with at some point prior to when the narrator is speaking:
Elle ramassa ses vêtements épars [simple past – completed event with no consequences continuing into the present from the perspective of the narrator]. Elle les rangea soigneusement dans sa valise noire [simple past – completed event with no continuing consequences]. Elle ne prit pas la route déserte [simple past – completed event with no continuing consequences] par où ils étaient venus [pluperfect – see 10.5.1 – earlier completed event]. Elle gravit à nouveau la colline [simple past – completed event with no continuing consequences] et, sur la roche plate où ils s’étaient assis [pluperfect – see 10.5.1 – earlier completed event], elle étala [simple past – completed event with no continuing consequences], ouvert en deux, le sac en papier qui avait enveloppé [pluperfect – see 10.5.1 – earlier completed event] ses nu- pieds neufs. Elle écrivit dessus [simple past – completed event with no continuing consequences] . . .
She picked up her scattered clothes. She packed them carefully into her black suitcase. She didn’t take the deserted road along which they had come. She climbed the hill again and, on the flat rock where they had sat, she spread the opened-out paper bag which had contained her new flip- flops. She wrote on it . . .
In modern French the simple past tense is restricted to written French. It is found in literary texts (novels, plays, poems) and in newspaper articles. It is used typically in passages of impersonal third-person narration, as in the above example. Engel (1990) has conducted a survey of the use of the simple past in newspaper articles. Among other things, she found that the simple past was likely to be used in formal, objectivity-seeking articles, in sports reports, in faits divers (reports of accidents, fires, rescues, etc.), and in items on the arts.
As noted above, the simple past is not found in all contexts in written French, even in literary French. Where a narrative is told from a personal, first-person perspective (and hence is more like spoken French than written) it is very likely that it will be told in the compound past. Japrisot, for example, in the novel quoted from above, has passages narrated in the third person and simple past tense, and passages narrated in the first person and compound past. The extract cited above would become the following if recounted from the point of view of the woman in question:
J’ai ramassé mes vêtements épars. Je les ai rangés dans ma valise noire. Je n’ai pas pris la route déserte par où nous étions venus. J’ai gravi à nouveau la colline et, sur la plate roche où nous nous étions assis, j’ai étalé, ouvert en deux, le sac en papier qui avait enveloppé mes nu- pieds neufs. J’ai écrit dessus . . .
The English simple past is used in a range of contexts where French distinguishes between the compound past/simple past on the one hand and the imperfect on the other. Take, for example, the English sentence ‘He slept all afternoon’. This can describe a one-of f, completed past event, in which case the French equivalent would be a compound past or a simple past form of the verb:
Or it can describe an habitual action, in which case the French equivalent would be an imperfect form of the verb:
Note that there is a distinction between viewing an action as habitual and viewing it as repeated. Repeated actions which are completed are described by verbs in the compound past/ simple past in French:
English indicates that an event was in progress in the past via a special form of the verb known as the ‘progressive’: ‘was/were V-ing’, e.g. ‘He was sleeping’. French does not have an equivalent special form for this. The English past progressive will normally be translated into French by the imperfect tense:
If there is a need to emphasize the duration, en train de can be used:
Two tenses are used to refer to future time: the future and the conditional, although the conditional also expresses meanings which are not simply related to future time.
The future tense has three main functions:
(a) It is used to describe events which take place in the future:
(b) As in English, it can be used as a more polite alternative to the imperative to give orders:
(c) It is sometimes the equivalent of English ‘may’, when a speaker is speculating about possible causes or outcomes:
(See Chapter 11.3.4 for more on ‘may’.)
NB: The future can be replaced by a present tense form of the verb aller + an infinitive where a greater certainty about the likelihood of an event taking place is implied than is given by the future. In many contexts the future and aller + an infinitive can be interchanged, e.g.:
But in some contexts there is a clear difference in meaning between the two:
Compared with:
The conditional has six main functions:
(a) It refers to events which would take place in the future if certain conditions were met:
(b) In reported speech (see 10.7) it is the equivalent of a future tense in direct speech:
| Il a dit: 'Je viendrai' | Il a dit qu'il viendrait |
| He said: 'I will come' | He said he would come |
This use of the ‘future in the past’ is not restricted to cases where the reported events are introduced by verbs like dire que ‘say that’, demander si ‘ask whether’, écrire que ‘write that’, etc. If a situation like the following:
is reported as having occurred in the past, the future form viendra can become a conditional:
The conditional is not obligatory here, however, and past tense forms of the verb are also possible:
(c) The conditional is used, especially in journalistic language, to state something as an ‘alleged’ fact, i.e. one which the writer doesn’t wish to state as definitely true and often one attributed to other sources:
(d) The conditional (and even the compound conditional – see 10.5.5) can be used in French as ‘could’ and ‘would’ are in English to make a request sound more polite:
(e) Sometimes the conditional can be the equivalent of English ‘might’ when the speaker is speculating about possible causes or outcomes – it expresses greater uncertainty than the future tense used for the same purpose:
(See Chapter 11.3.5 for more on ‘might’.)
(f) In formal French a clause with a conditional verb followed by a que- clause, also with a verb in the conditional tense, can be used as an alternative to a si- clause (see also Chapter 17.3.7). Compare the following:
In (very) informal French two clauses with verbs in the conditional tense, but without the que, can also be used as an alternative to a construction involving si:
(For tenses in si clauses see 10.8 and Chapter 17.3.6.)
In English, verbs in clauses introduced by conjunctions such as ‘when’, ‘as soon as’, ‘as long as’, ‘after’, ‘once’ are usually in a present or past tense verb form:
Where such clauses refer to events which are yet to happen (as they mostly do), in French you must use a future, conditional, compound future or com pound conditional, as appropriate. These clauses are introduced by conjunc tions such as: quand, lorsque, aussitôt que, dès que, sitôt que, dès lors que, tant que, après que, une fois que.
A good indicator that the event has yet to happen is the verb in the other clause, which will be in a future tense, conditional tense, etc., in English: ‘He will arrive as soon as I have left’. (See also Chapter 17.3.2.)
In clauses containing the preposition depuis ‘for’ or ‘since’, the tense of the verb differs systematically between French and English.
(a) In the case of the present, there are two points in time, now and an event in the past. Where the consequences of the event in the past continue into the present, from the perspective of the speaker, French uses a present tense, while English uses the perfect:
However, if the event does not have consequences which continue into the present, a past tense form of the verb will be used in French:
Compare with:
(b) In the case of the past, there are also two points in time, one in the past and one further back in the past. If the consequences of the event further back in the past continue forwards to the event in the past, French uses the imperfect tense where English uses the pluperfect:
But if the more distant event does not have continuing consequences, a pluperfect form of the verb will be used in French:
(For depuis que see Chapter 17.3.4.)
By contrast il y a ‘ago’ focuses on the completion of an event in the past, and the tense used in French is a past tense, just as it is in English:
pendant ‘for’, enables the speaker to indicate the length of time associated with an event, whether it is in the present, future or is a completed event in the past: It can sometimes be translated in English by ‘during’:
(For il y a un mois que . . . ‘it’s a month since . . .’, voilà/voici plusieurs ans que . . . ‘it’s several years since . . .’, see Chapter 17.3.4.)
Pour ‘for’ is generally used to indicate an intended length of time in the future and is most frequently associated with the verbs aller, venir, partir. It does not normally occur with rester. It is preferred in such usage to pendant.
But:
(See Chapter 13.47.)
Whereas the simple past and compound past tenses refer to events completed in the past from the perspective of the speaker or writer, the pluperfect describes events completed at some point even before these past events:
The past anterior is not used very frequently and can only occur in texts in which the simple past is used. It has two functions:
(a) It refers to a past event which immediately precedes another past event described by the simple past (as opposed to one past event preceding another without any specification of the length of the period between the two events – in this case a pluperfect would be used). A typical context for the past anterior is a clause introduced by the conjunctions quand, lorsque ‘when’, aussitôt que, dès que, sitôt que, dès lors que ‘as soon as’, tant que ‘as long as’, après que ‘after’, une fois que ‘once’:
(b) It is used with adverbs such as vite ‘quickly’, bientôt ‘soon’ where the idea of speed or urgency is expressed, and the verb would otherwise be in the pluperfect:
(See also Chapter 17.3.3.)
The double compound past tense and compound pluperfect tense can be used in spoken French where the past anterior is used in written French, to describe an event which immediately precedes another past event (typically in clauses introduced by quand, lorsque ‘when’, etc. – see 10.5.2), or to express speed or urgency. Where the verb describing the main past event is in a compound past tense form, the verb describing the preceding event is in a double compound past form:
Where the verb describing the main past event is in a pluperfect tense form, the verb describing the preceding event is in a compound pluperfect form:
In expressing speed or urgency, only the double compound past tense is possible:
The use of the double compound past and compound pluperfect tenses is not obligatory and is in fact relatively rare. Ordinary compound past and pluperfect tenses are the normal forms to use in these contexts.
Typically the compound future tense describes a future event from the perspective of its completion (as opposed to the future tense, which views an event simply from the perspective of its futurity). It usually corresponds to English ‘will have’:
Given this perspective, a compound future can describe an event which takes place before another event in the future:
The compound future can also be the equivalent of English ‘may have’, when a speaker is speculating about an event which may have occurred before another in the past:
The compound conditional has four main functions:
(a) It refers to events which would have taken place if certain conditions had been met (but weren’t):
(b) In reported speech (see 10.7) it is the equivalent of a compound future in direct speech:
| Direct speech: | Il a dit: 'J'aurai fini mon travail avant de partir en vacances' |
| He said: 'I will have finished my work before going on holiday' | |
| Reported speech: | Il a dit qu'il aurait fini son travail avant de partir en vacances |
| He said he would have finished his work before going on holiday |
(c) The compound conditional can be used to indicate that the speaker is stat ing something as a possible fact and not as a certainty, most often a fact asserted by others:
This is widely used in the press to express unsubstantiated or alleged facts:
(d) In formal French the compound conditional can be used as an alternative to a si clause containing a verb in the pluperfect (see also Chapter 17.3.7):
The double compound future can be used (but need not be) to describe an event completed in the future immediately before another future event. Typical contexts where it might be found are clauses introduced by dès que, quand, lorsque, aussitôt que, and so on (see 10.5.2 for the list):
When it is necessary to use tenses to indicate one moment in time relative to another, French is much more precise than English. In many sentences one clause establishes the main tense and another situates a second event in relation to it. When this is the case, it is essential to express the relative time relationship clearly in French by use of the appropriate tense as exemplified below.
(a) Assuming that one clause of a sentence relates to the present, events which precede the present will be in:
the imperfect if one wishes to stress the duration of the action;
the compound past (perfect) if one wishes to link the past action to the present or to leave that possibility open;
and in the simple past (past historic) if one wishes to indicate, in written French, that the action is definitely completed.
The English sentence:
She often played the violin, now she plays the piano
could be rendered into French in each of the following ways, depending on which of three possible meanings is intended:
(i) If ‘played’ refers to an habitual action in the past compared with the situ ation now, then the imperfect will be the appropriate tense:
(ii) If ‘played’ refers to an event completed in the past but possibly still relevant to the present, then the compound past (perfect) will be the appropriate tense:
(iii) If ‘played’ refers to an event (or a repeated set of events) seen as completed in the past and with no relevance to the present, the simple past (past historic) will be the appropriate tense in writing:
(b) Assuming that one clause of the sentence relates to the present, events which follow the present will be expressed through the future:
(c) An event which occurs immediately before an event which is in the present can be expressed by the present tense of venir de. The English translation usually involves ‘just’:
(a) Assuming that one clause of a sentence indicates that an event has taken place in the past, the following forms are used to indicate events further in the past than the given past event. Where the past event is expressed by the compound past (perfect) or the simple past (past historic), an event further in the past will be expressed by the pluperfect (see 10.5.1), or, in certain styles, the past anterior (see 10.5.2). These differences are frequently not expressed in the equivalent English sentences where simple past forms are used:
It is frequently possible for English to use the pluperfect ‘had bought’, ‘had finished playing’, etc. but most often users prefer the simpler forms and leave the interpretation to the reader: normally it is clear in context what is meant. However, despite the fact that English frequently does not mark these temporal distinctions, they cannot be left vague in French:
(b) The double compound past is used in cases where it is required that the event further in the past is marked as completed:
(c) The compound conditional is used to refer to a hypothetical event related to an event in the past:
(d) The imperfect of venir de can be used when one event is indicated as just having been completed prior to another one already expressed in the past tense. Note that the French imperfect must be translated by an English pluperfect ‘had told/presented etc.’:
(a) A sequential relationship between two events in the future can be expressed through the compound future:
marks a future action which precedes the indicated future point in time.
marks a future action which follows the indicated future point in time. (Note the preferred translation with ‘-ing’.)
both mark a future action which precedes another future action. (Note the translation into English by a present perfect.)
(b) The double compound future is used to indicate the completed nature of the event preceding another event in the future:
When descriptions of events (e.g. Le prisonnier s’est évadé par la fenêtre ‘The prisoner escaped through the window’) or the utterances of others (‘direct speech’- e.g. «Je viens demain» ’I’m coming tomorrow’) are reported to a third party, the tense of the verb in the original sentence can change in certain circum stances, and there may also be consequential changes in any associated time adverbs:
| Direct description: | Le prisonnier s'est évadé par la fenêtre |
| The prisoner escaped through the window | |
| Reported description: | La police croyait que le prisonnier s'était évadé par la fenêtre |
| The police thought that the prisoner had escaped through the window | |
| Direct speech: | Je viens demain |
| I'm coming tomortr | |
| Reported speech: | Il a dit qu'il venait le lendemain |
| He said that he was coming the following day |
(For the choice of appropriate time adverbs see Chapter 5.6.15.)
Verbs which introduce reported descriptions or reported speech are those such as dire que ‘to say that’, expliquer que ‘to explain that’, penser que, croire que ‘to think, believe that’, maintenir que ‘to maintain that’, prétendre que ‘to claim that’, and so on.
Mostly, the tense of the verb in the reported clause is the same as the tense of the verb in the original statement or utterance. But where the reporting verb is in a past tense – imperfect, compound past/simple past or pluperfect – the following systematic changes occur in the tense of the reported verb:
| Original | tense Reported tense | |
| present | → | imperfect |
| (compound) future | → | (compound) conditional |
| compound/simple past | → | pluperfect |
Table 10.A illustrates the pattern.
TABLE 10.A Tenses following a reporting verb in a past tense
| Direct description | Reporting verb (imperfect, compound or simple past, pluperfect) | Reported verb |
| Elle parle | Ils croyaient qu' | elle parlait |
| (present) | Ils ont cru/crurent qu' | (imperfect) |
| She is speaking | They thought that | she was speaking/spoke |
| Ils avaient cru qu' | ||
| They had thought that | ||
| Elle parlera | Ils croyaient qu' | elle parlerait |
| (future) | Ils ont cru/crurent qu' | (conditional) |
| She will speak | They thought that | she would speak |
| Elle aura parlé | Ils avaient cru qu' | elle aurait parlé |
| (compound future) | They thought that | (compound conditional) |
| She will have spoken | she would have spoken | |
| Elle a parlé | Ils croyaient qu' | elle avait parlé |
| (compound past) | Ils ont cru/crurent qu' | (pluperfect) |
| She spoke/has spoken | They thought that | she had spoken |
| Elle parla | Ils avaient cru qu' | |
| (simple past) | They had thought that | |
| She spoke |
Other tenses of reported verbs remain the same as the original. To take some typical examples:
| Direct description | Reported |
| Elle parlait | Ils avaient cru qu'elle parlait |
| They had thought that she was speaking | |
| Elle aurait parlé | Ils ont cru qu'elle aurait parlé |
| They thought that she would have spoken | |
| Elle avait parlé | Ils croyaient qu'elle avait parlé |
| They thought that she had spoken |
And where the reporting verb is in a non- past tense (i.e. present or any form of the (compound) future or (compound) conditional) the tense of the reported verb remains the same as the original:
| Direct description | Reported |
| Elle parle | Ils croiraient qu'elle parle |
| They would think that she is speaking | |
| Elle parlera | Ils croient qu'elle parlera |
| They think that she will speak | |
| Elle a parlé | Ils auraient cru qu'elle a parlé |
| They would have thought that she spoke |
si has two distinct functions. One is to introduce indirect questions, and cor responds to English ‘if’ when it can also mean ‘whether’: Elle m’a demandé si je voulais y aller ‘She asked me if/whether I wanted to go there’. Tenses fol lowing indirect question si are determined in exactly the same way as for reported speech, as described in 10.7. (See also Chapter 17.3.6.)
The other function of si is to introduce ‘hypothetical clauses’. In this use it cor responds to English ‘if’ when it cannot alternate with ‘whether’, e.g. ‘I won’t stay if (NOT *whether) he comes’ Je ne resterai pas s’il vient. The tense of the verb in the hypothetical si clause can never be in the (compound) future or (compound) conditional tense. Rather, it will typically obey one of the following patterns: