Mood and tense are two concepts that often get conflated in language studies. Most people tend to have an idea of what tense is, while mood sometimes gets confused as the same thing. Understanding the difference between them is important, especially when it comes to making good choices regarding translation.

MOOD

A mood is used to convey the attitude of the speaker towards what they are saying. It marks the tone of the speech rather than placing actions within a particular point in time. This is where mood and tense differ in their purposes. Moods can therefore be expressed using a variety of tenses, with the mood conveying the tone of what is said and the tense situating it within a particular point in time. There are four moods in French: the indicative, subjunctive, imperative and conditional.

Indicative

This mood expresses certainty. It is used to signal that the speaker is sure of what they are saying. It expresses an action that is well-vetted, either already underway or a regular occurrence.

Je vais à l’église tous les dimanches – I go to church every Sunday (this is something that occurs with frequent regularity, so it is something the speaker is sure of). We can say that this example expresses the indicative using the present tense, hence the present of the indicative.

Stéphanie a reussi à ses examens finals – Stephanie passed her final exams (This example uses the passé composé to express something that happened in the past and is a known certainty. Therefore, we can say it uses the passé composé of the indicative).

Subjunctive

The subjunctive tends to cause students a lot of confusion and stress, which is understandable to some degree. It is used to indicate uncertainty or doubt about what the speaker is saying. In this way, it can be considered the opposite of the indicative. While it exists in English, it is not quite as marked as it is in French.

The phrase ‘If I were a boy’ uses the subjunctive, though it may not be obvious because ‘were’ looks just like the simple past tense (as an aside, the alternative form ‘If I was a boy’ is common though technically incorrect). The subjunctive is used here because a hypothetical situation whose outcome is not certain is being expressed.

It is much more noticeable in French where it has a clear and distinct conjugation pattern. E.g. Il est important que tu viennes à la reunion demain – It is important that you come to the meeting tomorrow. Here there is a clear difference between the subjunctive form tu viennes and the equivalent indicative form tu viens.

The subjunctive will be discussed in more detail in a future post.

Imperative

The imperative is a form of direct address. It is more commonly associated with the giving of orders, but that is not its only purpose. It can also be used to request something of someone, make a suggestion, etc. It is employed with three persons only: 2^nd person singular (tu), 1^st person plural (nous) and 2^nd person plural (vous).

Allons au parc ! – Let’s go to the park (suggestion)

Lève-toi cet instant ! – Get up now! (order)

Ne fais pas de bruit – Don’t make any noise (order/request)

Conditional

The conditional is used to talk about the hypothetical, specifically something that would be fulfilled if a particular condition or set of conditions were met. It is commonly used in the formation of si clauses in French; the condition that needs to be met is in the imperfect and the resulting situation is in the conditional.

Example of a si clause: Si j’avais de l’argent, j’achèterais une voiture – If I had money, I would buy a car (avais is in the imperfect and achèterais in the conditional)

Il m’a dit qu’il viendrait à la fête – He told me he would come to the party (in English, the conditional is formed by combining the modal verb ‘would’ with the infinitive of the main verb, as in this example. Beware of this when translating to French as there is no direct way of saying ‘would’ by itself).

TENSE

A tense is used to mark the temporal nature of an action. In other words, it is used to situate an action somewhere in time (the present, past, near future, recent past, etc.)

Tenses don’t always translate linearly across languages; where English may use one tense (or even mood), French may use a completely different one altogether. Keep this in mind when dealing with translations.

The main tenses you will need to know in French are the present, imperfect, passé simple (recognition only), passé composé, future simple, future proche and the plus-que-parfait. At higher levels, you may also come in contact with the passé antérieur and futur antérieur.

Present tense

The present tense is used to indicate an action that is taking place currently or one that is ongoing/habitual. Both the simple present (I watch TV) and present continuous or progressive (I am watching TV) are rendered by the same form in French. The two sentences would both be translated as Je regarde la télé; there is no such thing as ‘je suis regarder’.

Passé composé

The passé composé is used to indicate a completed action in the past. Both the English simple past (He ate) and past participle (He has eaten) are translated by the passé composé in French; in this case it would be ‘Il a mangé’. Context will convey the intended meaning. The passé composé is known as a compound tense (this just means it is made up of two parts). It is formed by combining the present tense of an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) and the past participle of the main verb (e.g. mangé, allé, vu).

Stay tuned for part 2 of Mood, tense and verb forms.