To all present, Flyover French presents to you an early Christmas present: the French present tense - presently known en français as le présent, or le présent de l'indicatif. Quoi?? Well, it seems English isn't entirely free of the occasional ambiguity, either! Thankfully, in terms of context at least, French's present tense is not too far removed from that of English's.

Le Présent | Present Tense

1. General Use

Le présent is used to express:

1. What is happening here and now

   Je suis prêt	I am ready
   Les filles jouent au tennis	The girls are playing tennis
   J'ai faim!	I'm hungry (I have hunger)!

2. What habitually happens

   Je me réveille à 8 heures	I wake up at 8am
   Je travaille le week-end	I work on weekends
   Il joue au foot	He plays football

3. The immediate future

   Je viens!	I'm coming!
   Je te parle demain	I'll speak to you tomorrow
   They're playing soon	Ils jouent bientôt

4. General statements or truths

   Je pense donc je suis	I think therefore I am
   L'hiver est froid	The winter is cold
   Les roses sont rouges...	Roses are red...

5. An action that began in the past but is still ongoing

   Depuis quand est-ce que vous habitez ici?
   Since when have you been living here?
   Combien de temps y a-t-il que êtes-vous un journaliste?
   How long have you been a journalist?

6. With être + en train de + infinitive to say something's happening right now

   Je suis en train de manger

   I'm eating (I'm in the middle of eating)!

2. Formation

To learn how to easily form the present tense of any verb, please see our dedicated sections for regular (-er, -ir and -re) and those often perplexing irregular verbs. For the other main French tenses, just select the desired tab from above.

3. Concept Check

Here's a snapshot and some running examples of le présent; the first row are regular verbs, the second irregular.