Le présent de l’indicatif
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The French present tense, also known as the present indicative, is fairly similar to the English simple present, but there are some key differences. The French present tense can talk about any of the following:
1. Current actions or states of being
| Je travaille. | I’m working. | |
| Il est en retard. | He’s late. |
2. Habitual actions or states of being
| Oui, je travaille le dimanche. | Yes, I do work on Sundays. | |
| Il est toujours en retard. | He’s always late. |
3. Actions which are about to occur
| Je travaille demain. | I’m working tomorrow. | |
| Il arrive sur-le-champ. | He’ll be right here. |
4. Absolute or general truths
| Le soleil se lève à l’est. | The sun rises in the east. | |
| L’eau est essentielle à la vie. | Water is essential to life. |
5. Conditions in likely situations (si clauses)
| Si tu veux, tu peux dîner avec moi. | If you want, you can have dinner with me. | |
| Je vais le renvoyer s’il est en retard demain. | I’m going to fire him if he’s late tomorrow. |
French vs English
Much of the above applies to the English present tense, but as you can see in some of the translations, there’s just one French present tense with three possible English equivalents. Depending on the context, je parle might be translated by any of these:
| 1. | I speak | simple present |
| 2. | I am speaking | present progressive |
| 3. | I do speak | present emphatic |
There’s no present progressive (to be + present participle) in French: je suis parlant simply does not exist. Not only is it perfectly acceptable to say je parle maintenant to mean "I’m speaking right now," it’s the most common way to say it. If you want to stress that you are doing something right at this very moment, you can use the expression être en train de; literally, "to be in the process of." For example, je suis en train de parler. However, this construction is far less common than the English present progressive; in most cases, the regular old present tense works just fine in French.
Nor does French have a present emphatic. In most contexts, Oui, je parle français is a fine translation of "Yes, I do speak French." If you really want to get that same stress across, you have to use an adverb such as effectivement or en effet: Oui, en effet, je parle français.
For actions that began in the past and continue into the present, French uses depuis plus the simple present, while English uses "since" with the present perfect: J’habite ici depuis un an – "I’ve lived here for a year."
In English, the present tense is used after conjunctions that indicate a future action. In French, however, this is incorrect: these conjunctions must be followed by the future instead.
Par exemple…
| Je vais manger dès que je rentrerai. | ||
| I’m going to eat as soon as I arrive at home. |
Present tense conjugations
Present Tense Quizzes
Think you’ve got it? Test yourself on the French present tense with these fill-in-the-blanks exercises:
- Le 14 juillet dans mon village
- Déclaration d’amour
- Ma journée au parc
- Mes colocs
- Mes gestes écologiques
- Les poissons d’avril
Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless French account to take these tests. If you don’t have one, sign up – it’s free!
Related lessons
- Present tense conjugations – PwLF super list
- Present tense usage – PwLF super list
- Être en train de
- Future tense
- Present participle
- Introduction to verbs
French lesson plans
- French grammar sheets (Worksheet, 4th-12th grade)
- Les repas (Lesson, 10th grade)
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