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...

You cannot possibly learn a language on Duolingo, and tbf that's not really what it's designed for. Also, Memrise is a much better app IMO. It's useful as a revision aid or an extra if you are learning in a class, otherwise it will just teach you a few useful phrases.

You would be better off with that app you just speak your question into, or learn it properly. You are not going to grasp the essentials of French verb conjugation here either.

Those aren't tenses, though. Everything you've said here is present tense. Paul speaks English, you speak English. You're talking about conjugating regular verbs. They just need to be learned.

What you are describing is not verb tenses per se in that you’re only using one tense. rather this is conjugation in the present tense.

all French verbs end in either er/re/ir.

providing they’re regular verbs, to conjugate them in the present tense you remove the last two letters and add the verb ending appropriate to the subject you wish to use. Subject is the person doing the thing.

as you say, for er verbs those endings (when using the present tense) are e, es,e , ons, ez, ent.

simply put the verb endings change depending on who does them. This happens in English too. I sit- he sits. We just don’t have so many endings.

when you’ve learnt the present tense you can learn the perfect tense which is the main past tense in French and the future and conditional. Like a pp said, I would use aller+verb to make a simple future tense though!

If it's just for speaking though, parles, parlent and parle all sound the same anyway, the 's' doesn't matter. So you just have to learn 'Vous parlez' and 'Nous parlons' as different.

I don't know much at all about Duolingo, but I started to use it to learn Turkish and got frustrated as it didn't explain anything, and if you wanted to know something outside that particular lesson you couldn't find out. But maybe if you have the paid version you can do more with it.

Sorry - but 'je veux' is the present tense!

If you get stuck, you can always try saying I would like to in front of everything ..

Je voudrais louer une voiture (I would like to hire a car)

That way you just have to figure out/remember the verb rather than worrying about the different endings !

And yes, you would be unlikely to use "Tu" unless you know someone well.

@Curlewwoohoo Duolingo is brilliant for getting you started and learning pronounciation. It's no good for the systematic learning of grammar, though. This Wikipedia entry lays everything out so you have a framework for understanding why verb endings are as they are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_conjugation
Seeing verbs as a system gives you a framework to slot them into, unlike Duolingo, which is random.

If you want clear descriptions and practice exercises that are self marking I would really recommend the grammar section of Languages online languagesonline.org.uk/Hotpotatoes/frenchindex.html#Grammar
It's what I recommend to my students for practice.

Don't get me wrong I'm not expecting to learn to speak French properly. I just wanted to make an effort to get some phrases in my brain before we go there at the end of August. I want to seem polite!

There are lots of songs on youtube to help you learn endings etc. Most verbs are regular and have set endings - er verbs, -ir verbs and -re verbs. Unfortunately, some of the most common verbs are irregular :)

Ok so I can’t find a simple French verb table with the explanation in English, but the Wiki entry above is good.

Duolingo is useful but it doesn’t teach you the rules so it’s more difficult to reach a good level. I think it’s best in combination with something more structured.

Tu is used a lot more often now and not just between mates but it’s best to use vous if you’re not sure, or avoid using ‘you’ at all until the other person says it so you can copy them (been in France for 20 years and still do this sometimes!)

If you want to just ask for stuff in a shop or restaurant - simply say 'Je voudrais' (I would like) and point!

Don’t worry too much about verb endings if it’s just for a holiday, as long as you use the correct verb you’ll be understood.

I would recommend getting a grammar book or a French language book to supplement duolingo for French. I used Duolingo to learn Swedish which worked well as there are no verb conjugations at all, but I still bought a copy of Hugo's Swedish in three months and worked through that which definitely helped. With French it would be invaluable so you can learn irregular verbs, which verbs take être instead of avoir when forming the perfect tense etc.

-er, -ir -re verbs all different endings

For -er its a rhyme
e
es
e
ons
ez
ent

You can ask a question by just making a statement in a questioning tone eg "This table is free?" rather than trying to remember all the est-ce que stuff.

If you'd done Latin at school it would be a doddle, grammar-wise. Pronunciation, not so much!

Good on you for making an effort. Too many Brits don’t.

Ps those aren’t tenses as such, you’re conjugating one verb in the present tense. Wait til you get to the subjunctive 😝

Or the imperative

With er verbs like parler, you only hear three forms when speaking. Je parle, tu parles, il/elle parle and ils/elle parents are all pronounced in the same way ie the s (tu) and nt (ils/elles) are silent. That just leaves ons (nous) and ez (vous). As to why the ending are different, the reasons are lost in the history of the language. Just accept the endings are as they are. One less thing to worry about.

French teacher here. You can't really learn a language from Duolingo because it doesn't really explain anything. Eg the fact that you didn't know that the conjugation given above for parler is the regular endings and there a millions of -er verbs that follow the same pattern.
Also I don't find that Duolingo actually teaches useful holiday phrases. You're better off getting an old fashioned phrasebook and learning set phrases like 'where's the toilet' and 'how much'.
If you actually decide to learn French properly have a look at languageforfun.org they have teachers running classes in oubs and cafes all over the country (and online via Zoom) and it's all based on real useful French you can actually use (plus actually explains the grammar as you go). Good luck!

It's canard, Del. I know it is Rodney.

Wait till you get to past historic

Whilst I am glad you are learning the language of the place you are going on holiday, how often will you need to speak about something in future or the past? I have minimal knowledge of French past and future tenses, but it has never caused me any issue when visiting France or the French speaking parts of Belgium.

Fortunately only written so the OP won't need to learn it.