What is the main difference between the present perfect and the simple past?
Use the simple past when the action started in the past, finished in the past, and is not continuing now. Use the present perfect when the action started in the past and is continuing now. The simple past tells us that an action happened at a certain time in the past, and is not continuing anymore.
Is past and perfect tense the same in French?
The past perfect, also called the pluperfect, is a verb tense that distinguishes between two related things that happened in the past, indicating which one occurred before the other. The use of the past perfect is very similar in French and English.
What is the equivalent of the present perfect in French?
French. French has no present perfect aspect. However, it has a grammatical form that is constructed in the same way as is the present perfect in English, Spanish, and Portuguese by using a conjugated form of (usually) avoir “to have” plus a past participle.
What is the difference between past and present tense in French?
Quick Recap on French Past Tense The past tense is used when you talk about an action that took place and was completed in the past. To form the past tense, you use this formula: present tense of the verb avoir or être + the past participle.
What is the difference between simple present tense and simple past tense?
The present simple tense is used to talk about routines, facts, states that are permanent, and things that are true. The past simple tense is used to talk about completed actions, regular actions, and successive actions in the past.
What’s the difference between past tense and past perfect?
Past tense is used to describe an event or action that was completed. Past perfect is used to describe an action that was completed long ago in the past. When past tense and past perfect tense are used together, the action that happened first takes the past perfect form while the other is written using past tense.
Is present perfect the same as passé composé?
The passé composé is usually translated into English as a simple past tense, “I saw”, or as a present perfect, “I have seen”. It could also be translated as emphatic past tense, “I did see”. The auxiliary may actually be used similarly in any tense, leading to the French compound tenses.
What is the simple past tense in French?
Le passé simple
Le passé simple, also known as le passé historique, is a French past tense that is only used in written language. It has the same meaning as the passé composé; it talks about a completed, one-time action in the past.
What are the most important tenses in French?
6 French Verb Tenses You Must Know
- 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)
What is difference between simple present and present perfect?
We use Simple Present for general statements about the present and for actions taking place regularly in the present. We use Present Perfect Progressive to express how long an action has been going on.
Can we use past simple instead of past perfect?
Most prefer to do this by using the past perfect tense, or chronological order of events in the past simple tense. The past perfect is optional [i.e. may be replaced by past simple] only when talking about an action at a specific time. This “rule” is a combination of the usage rules for past simple and past perfect.
What are the two main past tenses in French?
passé simple | simple past. plus-que-parfait | past perfect (pluperfect)
What are the two past tenses in French?
Five past forms, which are imparfait (imperfect), passé composé (compound past), passé simple (simple past), plus-que-parfait (pluperfect) and passé antérieur (anterior past).
Do I need to learn passé simple?
Unlike the simple past, the passé simple is a literary tense and is thus limited to formal writing, such as literature, journalism, and historical accounts. However, that does not mean it’s not essential: it’s used in all written stories, even children’s books.
Is the passé simple still used?
The “passé simple” is definitely still used by contemporary writers, and it is not considered as bad or outdated style.
Which French tenses are actually used?
What order should I learn French tenses?
It’s best to learn the different verb tenses gradually. They are usually tackled in the following order: present, immediate future, recent past, perfect, future, imperfect, conditional (present and past). Then come the pluperfect, subjunctive or past historic.
How many tenses should I learn in French?
There are 8 different verb tenses in the indicative mood: présent (present), imparfait (imperfect), passé simple (simple past), futur simple (simple future), passé composé (perfect), plus-que-parfait (pluperfect), passé antérieur (past anterior), and futur antérieur (future anterior).
How do you change simple past to present perfect?
We make present perfect tense by putting has / have before the past participle form of the verb.
- I finished the work yesterday.
- I sent the payment yesterday.
- I received his letter a week ago.
- She hurt her leg.
- There was an explosion near the castle.
- I went to China, Japan and Korea.
- She passed the test.
How do you change past simple to past perfect?
To form the past perfect tense you use the past tense of the verb “to have,” which is had, and add it to the past participle of the main verb. For example: subject + had + past participle = past perfect tense.
Can we use present perfect with past simple?
Yes, it is perfectly idiomatic since the perfect and the past tenses relate to different time conditions. Although he has watched football all his life, he didn’t go to today’s match. The first verb relates to something that has been going on throughout the subject’s lifetime, the second to what he did today.
What is the difference between the simple past and present perfect?
The simple past uses a single verb (the simple past form of the verb) while the present perfect uses two verbs (has/have + participle form of the verb). The easiest way to remember is that the action/event in past simple refers to “finished” time while in present perfect, it suggests there’s still a connection to the present.
What is the past simple tense?
The past simple (also called the simple past), as the name suggests, is the tense we use to talk about any action or event that has already happened. Moreover, we use this tense when we know the exact or specific details of the time of the event (such as yesterday, the previous winter, last year, five hours ago and so on).
How to use the imperfect and passé composé in French?
The following key words and phrases tend to be used with either the imperfect or the passé composé, so when you see any of them, you know which tense you need: le lundi, le mardi… on Mondays, on Tuesdays… lundi, mardi… une fois, deux fois… once, twice…
How do you use the past and present in a sentence?
We add have -en when we are talking about the present, and we want to say what happened before now. There is a result in the present. We use the past form to talk about a specific time in the past. We use have/has + -en to talk about results we have in the present.