Francisez | Learn to conjugate present participles

Learn to conjugate present participles

Le participe présent

When to use

The present participle, or gerund, is used in French to express simultaneity with while ~ing, reason with by ~ing and as a present tense adjective or gerund. Its English equivalents are as follows:

While ~ing
When expressing two or more actions happening at the same with while.

Eg. While going to the shop, I remember that I forgot my wallet.
Reason with by
When expressing how something happens or the means of something happening by.

Eg. By working overtime every day, he got paid a lot.
Replacing a relative clause
When turning a verb into an adjective, replacing who plus a verb or which plus a verb.

Eg. The man leaving stole the money (replacing: who leaves).
Adjectival formation from a verb
When turning a verb into an adjective, differing to the gerund type adjective where is cannot be replaced with who plus verb or which plus verb. Read Notable points for more on this.

Eg. She found the boy charming.

Examples of use

Eg. 1)

Elle parle en mangeant.

She speaks while eating.

Eg. 2)

En travaillant trop il s'épuise.

By working so much he gets worn out.

Eg. 3)

L'homme livrant la nourriture arrive.

The man delivering our food is here.

Eg. 4)

Le livre est amusant.

The book is amusing.

How to conjugate

Drop the final 'ons' from the plural first person, the nous form, of present tense of the indicative and use the following ending:

Tous

-ant

All

Examples of conjugation

-er verb
parler nous parlons to speak
Tous	parlant

-ir verb
choissir nous choisissons to choose
Tous	choisissant

-re verb
vendre nous vendons to sell
Tous	vendant

Notable points

'-ing' confusion
In English, like many other Germanic languages, we have an '-ing' construction which is also called the present continuous tense. Non-germanic languages do not use this construction. This means, I am eating and I eat are the same thing. In modern French, you cannot say Je suis mangeant for I am eating, you will always say Je mange. If you need to emphasize that an action is happening now, there is a present continuous construction. But this is only for stressing. It is être en train de plus the infinitive.
Détendez-vous, je suis en train de faire les comptes !
Relax, I'm doing the books now!
Adjective agreement
It is important to remember that when present participles are used as adjectives, they need to agree with the noun they're describing in number and gender. The following example has a noun that is singular and masculine, therefore the adjective doesn't need to change.
L'anneau est brillant, j'aime ça !
The ring is shiny, I love it!

But in the following example, the noun is feminine and plural. Therefore, the adjective needs to be modified.
Je trouves les filles charmantes.
I find the girls charming

Adjective formation

When creating adjectives from verbs, some verbs have different spelling for gerund and adjective. Verbs ending in '-guer', keep '-guant' for gerunds, but become '-gant' for adjectives. This is the same for '-quer' verbs, with '-quant' for gerunds and '-cant' for adjectives. One verb is irregular, savoir, which has sachant for a gerund and savant for an adjective (as borrowed in English, a savant [an all-knowing person]). Last is a long list of adjectives that change their ending from '-ant' to '-ent', these will need to be memorized.

Verb	Gerund	Adjective
fatiguer (-gant)	fatiguant	fatigant
fabriquer (-cant)	fabriquant	fabricant
savoir (irreg.)	sachant	savant
exceller (-ent)	excellant	excellent

Other moods and tenses

Participles	Present Past
Indicative	Present Imperfect Simple Future Simple Past Passé composé Plus-que-parfait Past Perfect Future Perfect	-ER -IR -RE -ER -IR -RE
Subjunctive	Present Imperfect Plus-que-parfait Past
Conditional	Present Past Past (2^nd)
Imperative	Present Past

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