French tenses are impossible!!!

[Curlewwoohoo]

Trying to learn some French on Duolingo before our summer hol. I just can't get my head around tenses at all! I'm really trying... I think I got stuck at the same point at school, many moons ago...

Which ones are you stuck on? I speak pretty good French and do find it's a language which doesn't always follow its own rules which can be tricky. If you are just learning for holiday though, nobody will mind if you get a few tenses wrong. They'll be pleased you've had a go (and probably speak back to you in English!)

If it’s any sympathy DD did 8 years of French and still couldn’t get her head round the tenses.. It’s a hard language! Still somehow managed an A at GCSE though 🤣

Are you on the subjunctive yet?

DD is doing a French degree and would still agree with you!

It is a very hard language, particularly coming from English, which doesn't even have a future tense.

Parler for example. Paul parle Anglais. Tu parles Anglais - why is it parles and how to remember. Il parle , Elle parle, but then if there's more than one of them ils / elles parlent, where's that come from! I think I've clicked that nous makes the verb end in s, nous parlons. Sometimes I just plump for one and there's no real reason.

None of it is really helping me buy lunch or hire a bike 😆

je parle
tu parles
il / elle parle
nous parlons
vous parle
ils / elles parlent

This is the very regular conjugation of a verb ending in -er. I'm afraid learning by heart is the only option.

vous parlez

Yes there was a reason we had verb tests every week in school!

Ok I'm going to find some post its!

What other verbs follow this pattern? Please????

I was extremely good at French at school and I still am.
I used to write out the tenses, over and over.
As you say, learning them off by heart is the only way.

regarder, écouter, acheter...and a whole load of others

manger, toucher, porter etc. etc.

If I remember correctly, there are regular -er verbs, regular-ir verbs.

They all have set endings.

Then to confuse matters there are irregular verbs too.

You only need to remember vous and nous endings (ez and ons) as the others roughly sound the same. You'll probably never need tu as would be too familiar.

For the future, just use aller like we say "I am going to the shops". That was my French friend/teacher's tip.

There are 3 main verb groups plus être and avoir. Once you know the rules it’s a lot easier.

I’m going to Google a (not too off putting!) verb table.

Once you have learned all the verbs & tenses, it really is quite easy.
English does have a future tense eg
I will be…. going, eating speaking ect.
French verbs either end er,ir or ais from memory of French O level a lifetime ago. Well done for trying. Also similar to Spanish & Italian.

IMVHO if you want to learn a language like French, which has specific ways of declining a verb (or German, with it's grammar), then you need a more structured way of learning. I'm not sure that something like Duolingo teaches grammar?

In practice when you are talking in French you clip the ends of the words anyway so it's hard to hear.

Personally I find present tense plus pronouns works for me.

Je voudra(mumbles ending) points at pastry.

I second the learning by rote approach as the only way to do it. The vous form is parlez, with a z. It may help the OP to remove the infinitive 'er' so the e, es, e, ons, ez and ont endings are added to parl.

Interested to understand that you don't really use Tu because it's too informal? That's just for mates is it? Even these days?

And that's just the present tense. (BTW it's vous parlez). Also past imperfect, future perfect, subjunctive and Dieu knows what else OP I am also learning French with Duolingo but am supplementing it with a couple of KS3 workbooks and a grammar guide. The CGP ones are good and very funny.

Regarder
Manger
Visiter

All regular -er verbs have the following endings

e
es
e
ons
ez
ent

It's the same in English. We don't say I eats. We say I eat, you eat, he eats.... The ending changes. There are 3 types of verbs. -er, -ir, -re