The Tense Master: French

Do you want to know how not to make friends in French?

I bet you probably want to know how to make friends in French. How to communicate with native speakers in French. How to have meaningful conversations.

But let me first tell you a story that shows precisely what not to do if you want those conversations to flow.

When I first started learning French, I got myself into a funny situation. I'm sure you can relate. I kind of made a friend who thought I was somebody that I wasn't. Here's how it happened.

I met my friends Jennifer and Sophie for lunch one day. We usually speak English but since I'd recently started learning French, we were speaking French that time. I thought I'd show off a little bit!

We were chatting about travel – our plans, our past adventures, ways to travel on the cheap, and so on. We ended up talking about the city of Bordeaux – its climate, its wine, its artistic scene. Lovely place!

And then... I said:

'I go to Bordeaux with my brother.'

Jennifer and Sophie looked impressed. 'That's cool', they said at once. And then they said they'd pay for the lunch as long as I bring them back some nice cheese next time I go.

What do you mean 'next time I go', I thought. I meant to say 'I went to Bordeaux with my brother. Last spring!' I did not mean that I regularly go to Bordeaux!

But I guess I was too embarrassed to admit that I'd made a mistake so I just smiled. What else can you do?

And then they told me that their friend Lou is from Bordeaux, and that Lou and I should get together and chat about the best places to eat out and socialise in the city. Because I know so much about Bordeaux because I go all the time!

'Sure', I said. Except, I don't go all the time. I went once, last spring, and that was it, I thought.

Too late. They gave my number to Lou and Lou got in touch. He said let's meet for coffee next weekend. We'll have fun, we'll chat about Bordeaux and our impressions of it, our adventures we've had when we've been. Because we both go a lot.

Except, I don't. I only went once... But it was kind of too late to say anything...

The following weekend, I was out lunching with Lou and chatting about Bordeaux. Lou is French so we spoke French. He doesn't speak much English anyway. He said:

'So what's your favourite theatre in Bordeaux?'

'Well, I don't know any theatres', I said.

'And your favourite restaurant?'

'I don't know any names...'

'OK, your favourite café then!'

'Hmm, I can't think...'

'Do you actually know Bordeaux?' Lou looked very suspicious. I finally said:

'No, I go to Bordeaux with my brother. Last spring.'

'I see!' Lou said. 'You went last summer!'

'Went! Yes!' I exclaimed. 'I went to Bordeaux last summer. Only once...'

This was a very confusing situation. I made a new friend based on our shared knowledge of a city that I'd only visited once. It was confusing because I didn't know how to explain that something happened in the past, rather than it happening regularly in the present.

It's because I didn't know enough tenses to express what I wanted to say accurately.

Being able to talk about the past is paramount. Being able to distinguish it from the present and the future is crucial.

You can learn a lot of vocabulary in a foreign language but if you don't know how to talk about the past or the future, you won't be able to communicate effectively. You might end up like me – making friends who are convinced that you've done something, been somewhere, when, in reality, you are only planning a trip or planning to do something that may never even happen.

You need to know how to use different tenses if you want to have meaningful conversations in a foreign language.

And that's what The Tense Master will help you with.

Problem 1: You know the words but don't know how to put them into logical sentences

Whenever I learn a new language, I pick up an app. I've got a couple of favourites that I always go to, and I love them.

I do the basics, some essential phrases, learn how to ask questions and make negative sentences, learn a lot of vocabulary.

But then, I get stuck.

I get stuck because I don't know where to go next. I don't know how to move on from the pre-intermediate level. I seem to be learning a lot of vocabulary but there is one problem.

I can't put the words together into logical, naturally-sounding sentences.

To do that, I need grammar. And specifically, I need to know about the tenses.

Because everything we express by speaking in a foreign language is expressed in a tense. When we talk about:

• What food we didn't like as a child (the past simple tense)
• Where we'd lived before our children were born (the past perfect tense)
• What we've been doing while we've been waiting for someone (the present perfect continuous tense)
• What we do as a job (the present simple tense)
• What we're thinking about (the present continuous tense)
• What car we will buy next year (the future simple tense)
• What car we will have bought by the time it's winter (the future perfect tense)

These things are all expressed using tenses. Tenses are everything.

And that's what The Tense Master is here to give you.

It gives you the gift of easy-to-understand and easy-to-apply rules for French present, past and future tenses.

You will learn them in a structured way, one by one, in a way that's simple, visual and easy-to-remember. You will see a lot of examples and learn how to apply each tense in practice.

You will learn how to speak French because tenses are the key to speaking a foreign language fluently.

But don't children learn to speak without learning the rules?

There are many claims being made about the effectiveness of so-called 'immersion'. That you can read or listen to a language, learn some vocabulary, and naturally acquire the language in the same way children acquire their native languages by being immersed in them (without actually learning the grammar rules of their language).

There is some truth in that. Don't get me wrong – immersion is great. I would always recommend that you read and listen to your target language extensively if you want to get good at it.

But there is a limit as to what you can do if you just immerse yourself as an adult.

I have personally learned all the languages I can speak by learning the grammar.

In fact, learning the rules was what enabled me to be fluent. I've achieved native-level fluency in English by learning the rules. People often tell me that they didn't know I wasn't born bilingual. But it's true – I wasn't.

I developed native-like fluency in English by learning the rules. And yes – immersion, reading and listening a lot, and learning vocabulary were all very, very important. But so were the grammar rules. And specifically, learning the tenses.

Learning the tenses has enabled me to express my present, my past and my future – all there is to express!

Whenever somebody asks me about my journey to fluency, I mention grammar and, specifically, tenses. Once you've finished all the mini-courses on the free apps, that's what I recommend you do – learn tenses to be able to form sentences that sound logical and natural.

Problem 2: Learning the rules is overwhelming and time-consuming

You may have tried learning the rules in the past. Or maybe you're at the start of your journey with the French language. Whatever your story is, I've got good news for you.

Learning rules relating to French tenses doesn't have to be overwhelming or time-consuming.

When I created The Tense Master, I thought about people like you. Like myself.

We don't have hours every day to read books about grammar. We don't have whole days in our week when we can just sit down and read 10 pages about one past tense in French.

We need a modular approach. We need small bites that we can consume easily.

And that's what The Tense Master does. It serves you small chunks of grammar rules that you will be able to consume one by one. Each lesson is a chunk. It's small. It's simple. And it's not overwhelming. You can do one lesson and stop, until you've got time to learn again.

For example, in the section about past tenses, you will have a lesson which only focuses on conjugating verbs with 'ir' endings in the French passé composé tense. Just that and nothing else.

Many courses serve you large chunks of grammar, which can be overwhelming or simply... boring. The Tense Master is different.

Problem 3: Grammar rules and tenses are difficult to remember / boring

Grammar rules around tense use can be quite difficult to remember. Especially if you're learning from a typical grammar-heavy book that goes into lengthy explanations of grammar points. Like this:

So-and-so tense is used to talk about:

• So-and-so
• So-and-so
• So-and-so
• And a dozen other situations

There are also 23 different exceptions and here they are:

• Exception 1
• Exception 2
• Exception 3
• And so on

The Tense Master approaches this issue differently. Here's how.

Keeping it simple

The explanations for each tense are simple and focus on the most important rule. The most important rule will be the one that you will use the most when speaking French. And that's what matters.

The reason you're learning tenses, after all, is so that you can speak and have conversations. Now just to be able demonstrate that you know the rules off by heart.

Visual explanations

The Tense Master uses graphics to illustrate the rules in a visual way, to help you understand and remember the rules.

The explanations are as simple as possible. The language I use is simple as well, and the images support the explanations and help you remember them.

Mnemonics

The Tense Master also uses mnemonics to help you remember the rules. The mnemonics are fun stories that are quite memorable themselves.

Problem 4: I don't know how to apply the rules and use the tenses in practice

Reading about the rules, and even knowing them, doesn't, in itself, enable you to use them in practice. That's why The Tense Master includes loads and loads of examples of sentences to help you understand why and when each tense would be used.