| 4.1 Introduction to the conjugation |
Just one or two words about conjugation and tenses before we start with the real thing. Conjugation is the change of verbs according to the person that is the subject, who does something. In English there is hardly any conjugation left. Let's have a look at it:
| Simple conjugation in English | singular | plural |
| 1st person 2nd person 3rd person |
I read |
we read |
As we can see there is only in the third person singular a change in the verb, the suffix -s is added. All the other verbs are identical with the infinitive (the unchanged basic form of a verb).
When having a look at the verb to be, we get an idea, how the conjugation in other languages like also French works.
| Simple conjugation in English | singular | plural |
| 1st person 2nd person 3rd person |
I am |
we are |
In singular every person has a different ending (here it is not only the ending, but we think you get the point). If you have studied another language before, you very likely have met this phenomenon before, most of the languages use this change in verbs to indicate which person and which time is used.
And here comes another issue, the tenses. Most of the tenses are used in the same way as in English. Especially the coming - the present tense - is in use quite simple. Later on we will see that there are challenges in store, the subjunctive in French. However, let's not yet think about it, we will start with the present tense.
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