GUIDE深度 · Deep dive
Using Five French Tenses
Present covers habits/current; imperfect covers background/ongoing; future covers plans/predictions; conditional covers hypotheses/politeness; passé composé covers completed actions with avoir + past participle.
Timeline
Completed yesterday -> passé composé.
Ongoing/background -> imperfect.
Tomorrow/prediction -> future.
Passé composé
Present avoir + past participle.
-er -> é, -ir -> i, -re -> u.
Say the sentence with a time marker first; the marker usually makes the correct tense obvious before you conjugate.
FAQ
When is être used?
Some motion/state verbs (aller, venir, descendre, etc.); this deck uses avoir only.
Can imperfect and passé composé combine?
Yes; imperfect sets the scene and passé composé gives the event.