Using Le Présent for ongoing actions where English uses Present Continuous

Posted by Aurélie Drouard

In: Level A1, Verbs Tenses & Conjugation, Présent indicatif

Questions: 2

Look at these sentences:

Je mange un gâteau délicieux.
I'm eating a delicious cake.

C'est toujours quand je prends une douche que le téléphone sonne!
It's always when I'm having a shower that the phone rings.

Notice that in French you use Le Présent to describe actions that are ongoing in the present, whereas in English we would use the Present Continuous tense for these actions (as opposed to the Present Tense). 

Examples and resources

Marie travaille à Paris maintenant
Marie is working in Paris now.

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Je lis un livre
I read a book / I am reading a book

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C'est toujours quand je prends une douche que le téléphone sonne!
It's always when I'm having a shower that the phone rings.

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Je mange un gâteau délicieux.
I'm eating a delicious cake.

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Q&A

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Martin

Kwiziq community member

27 February 2018

1 reply

Using the present in French to express the future.

Chris

Kwiziq community member

28 February 2018

28/02/18

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